An American Coder in Paris

Slides for my talk about being a remote employee for GitHub and what it takes for remote to work, both on a personal level and for a company.

Transcript

1. an american coder in paris scott chacon
2. my story
3. why Paris?
6. 70%
7. moving to Paris
8. 1. One application form (English version) filled out and signed 2. One ID picture glued/stapled onto the application form 3. Original passport or travel document 4. Status in the US 5. Letter promising not to engage in any employment in France (notarized) 6. Letter of employment in the US stating occupation and earnings 7. Proof of means of income — letter from the bank, etc 8. Proof of medical insurance 9. Marriage certificate or family book + Birth certificates for children 10.Proof of accommodation in France (lease or rental agreement) 11. Processing fees 12.One residence form duly filled out (upper part only) 13.E-ticket or reservation confirmation email showing the date of departure 14.A self-addressed prepaid Express Mail envelope
12. https://medium.com/@chacon
14. how to remote work
15. the hard
16. Timezones the
17. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
18. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
19. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
20. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
21. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
22. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
23. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
24. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
25. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
26. Local Currency the
27. Work / Life the
28. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
29. Imposter Syndrome the
30. “They are convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.” the Source: Wikipedia
31. the
32. General Paranoia the
33. the
34. the
35. the nice
36. Productivity the
37. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
38. Schedule the
39. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
40. the
41. the tricks
42. Separate Space the
43. Separate Space the
44. Coworking, Meetups the
45. Get Out the
46. Schedule the
47. the 9a 10a 11a 12p 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 12a 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a 12a 1p 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p 8p 9p 10p 11p Paris San Francisco
49. Feedback the
50. the company
51. the company
52. “The success or failure of a distributed team hinges on your organizational culture and the strengths of management, not on the product you're creating or the nature of distributed teams themselves.” http://silverwraith.com/blog/2014/12/the-case-for-distributed-teams/
53. Electronic Available Asynchronous Lock-Free
54. Electronic “Discussion, planning, and operations process should use a high fidelity form of electronic communication like email, github.com, or chat with transcripts wherever possible. Avoid meatspace discussion and meetings.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
55. Electronic “Discussion, planning, and operations process should use a high fidelity form of electronic communication like email, github.com, or chat with transcripts wherever possible. Avoid meatspace discussion and meetings.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
56. Available “Work should be visible and expose process. Work should have a URL. It should be possible to move backward from a piece of product or a system failure and understand how it came to be that way. Prefer git, issues, pull requests, mailing lists, and chat with transcripts over URL-less mediums..” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
57. Available “Work should be visible and expose process. Work should have a URL. It should be possible to move backward from a piece of product or a system failure and understand how it came to be that way. Prefer git, issues, pull requests, mailing lists, and chat with transcripts over URL-less mediums..” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
58. Asynchronous “Almost no part of the product development process requires that one person interrupt another's immediate attention or that people be in the same place at the same time, or even that people be in different places at the same time. Even small meetings or short phone calls can wreck flow so consider laying it out in (a thought out) email or sending a pull request instead.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
59. Asynchronous “Almost no part of the product development process requires that one person interrupt another's immediate attention or that people be in the same place at the same time, or even that people be in different places at the same time. Even small meetings or short phone calls can wreck flow so consider laying it out in (a thought out) email or sending a pull request instead.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
60. Lock Free “Avoid synchronization / lock points when designing process. This is DVCS writ large. We don't have a development manager that grants commit bit to repositories before you can do work, or a release manager that approves deploys, or a product manager that approves work on experimental product ideas. Work toward a goal should never be blocked on approval. Push approval/rejection to the review stage or automate it, but surface work early to get feedback.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
61. Lock Free “Avoid synchronization / lock points when designing process. This is DVCS writ large. We don't have a development manager that grants commit bit to repositories before you can do work, or a release manager that approves deploys, or a product manager that approves work on experimental product ideas. Work toward a goal should never be blocked on approval. Push approval/rejection to the review stage or automate it, but surface work early to get feedback.” http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
62. Electronic Available Asynchronous Lock-Free
63. is the office chat
64. Avoiding
67. virtual water cooler micro updates
69. communicating across departments
72. good video conferencing
73. good video conferencing
74. face time summits minisummits
75. “My point here isn't that magic can only happen in person, rather that magic doesn't happen all the time. We cultivate the magic with frequent travel. ” http://silverwraith.com/blog/2014/12/the-case-for-distributed-teams/
76. “If anything, I would contend that magic happens more often after work, over food and drinks, or during casual conversation. Regularly traveling to meet your peers more than achieves that, and leaves the rest of your time free to focus on implementing the magic you have brought forth. ” http://silverwraith.com/blog/2014/12/the-case-for-distributed-teams/
79. Modes of Communication Before After Email GitHub Issue Hallway Chat Summits Meeting GitHub Issue Video Chat One on One Video Chat
80. GitHub
81. the sun never sets on the GitHub Empire
82. the numbers
83. Engineering (67%) Sales (48%) Support (85%) Marketing (36%) Product (37%) G&A (5%) HQ Remote
84. Engineering 67% Engineering HQ Remote
85. G&A HQ Remote Executive, Legal, HR, Finance, BizDev, Comm, G&A
86. why remote
87. why remote (for your company)
88. productivity
89. hiring anywhere
90. employee happiness
91. lower costs
92. simpler environment
93. clarity
94. why remote (for humanity)
95. the costs of colocation
96. One Bedroom Two Bedroom 0 1050 2100 3150 4200 Source: RentJungle Avg: $3469 Rent in SF
97. Source: WNYC Avg: 25.4 min Commute Time
98. inclusivity
100. why not?
101. “you just can’t replace what happens when people are in the same room” - everybody, ever
102. there is no company culture
103. less creative collaboration
104. no serendipitous hallway conversations
105. less sharing of knowledge
106. group productivity is more important than individual productivity
107. the future
109. what happens when we can remove the disadvantages?
110. @chacon thank you