[shazamjad]

I will add to this - I worked for a company last year where the majority of projects were outsourced to a team setup in Egypt, and I spent more time debugging their work than it would've taken me to do it myself.

Not to mention how off the spec most of their work was and our clients were always left dissatisfied. I think that's part of the reason I left within a few months.

Remote working is amazing provided you can get a solid, self motivated person or team who are on the same wave length as you - but it's incredibly tough.

[plinkplonk]

"I will add to this - I worked for a company last year where the majority of projects were outsourced to a team setup in Egypt, and I spent more time debugging their work than it would've taken me to do it myself."

To be fair, DHH isn't talking about outsourcing to dumb but cheaper devs. He is talking about hiring really good people, who won't or can't move to San Fransisco (or wherever), and probably cost as much or close as devs in SF. I doubt 37 Signals hires remote workers who check in code that has to be debugged before it works.

iow I am saying, respond to what DHH actually said.

[gexla]

The original article is talking about hiring A players remotely vs hiring B players locally. In your Egypt example, you are talking about something different, hiring C players remotely.

[sgdesign]

That's a great way to sum up the issue.

[dodyg]

Incidentally I am based in Cairo, Egypt. Our team here is mainly working remotely from home since it just saves a lot of time in travelling. Cairo is a mega city with a bad traffic jam - letting people to work from home saves 1 to 2 hours of pain and misery every day. This fact alone makes people happier.