Damein and I live on opposite coasts. He’s in Raleigh while I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the rest of the world was thrust into working remotely in the past six months, we’ve been doing it for about two years. And like so many other people getting a taste of working from home, we like it. At first it seems like a disadvantage with casual communication taking a big hit. But there’s a surprising amount of benefits of having a permanently remote team.
We started Revision when we both lived in Raleigh. We were simultaneously roommates, best buds, coworkers at our day job, and cofounders of Revision. It honestly left us with too much to discuss. Progress for Revision was very slow.
Then, some outside forces caused me to pack up and go work in California. We both miss being distracted by motorcycles and drinking beers in the garage, but none of this would be here if we were still in that garage. In truth, ripping the band-aid off has stripped down the personal and focused us on strictly cofounding stuff. We define the problem together, then retreat back to our corners and noodle it out on our own before reconvening.
We’ve become so comfortable working remotely that we’re easily distracted when we get together IRL. We often revert to our old movie watching, wrench turning and beer drinking ways and just use that time together to be friends, not just business partners.
Because of the distance, all of our discussions have an implied urgency. There are only so many designs we can discuss together in a week so I pick through the cream of the crop before we get together. Likewise, formalizing our get-togethers gives them a goal that they were severely lacking before. Now, we get together and talk and then hand the problem back to one of us to solve. It used to just live in the ether of meandering conversations.
All this to say. There are hidden benefits to the way we work now that I never would have anticipated. And it makes me wonder what else we are taking for granted about our work-life.
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