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A review by rodhilton
Remote: Office Not Required by David Heinemeier Hansson
3.0
This book was a little disappointing, not because it's bad but because it wasn't quite what I was looking for. The book advertises itself as a collection of solutions to problems people encounter when embracing remote work, but more than anything else the problem it solves is "how do I convince management to embrace remote work?"
Most of the book is structured as a work of persuasion, something that's intended to convince people to go remote. A lot of it seems geared toward executives and managers, or giving lower-level employees ammunition and counterarguments for common objections. That's all well and good, but as someone who is already on-board with remote work and pretty experienced doing it for over 5 years, I don't personally need any convincing - I need help.
Going remote poses unique challenges and difficulties, and I thought the book might help give me some practical solutions to issues I've had with remote work as someone who prefers it and wants to be more successful with it. There's a little of that in the book, but it's mostly meant to persuade. I decided to read the book because I'm joining a new team that is fully distributed and having some struggles, and I was hoping this book would help me help them - but that's not really what's in here.
That said, since reading the book by total coincidence I've found myself involved in multiple conversations with people skeptical of remote work, and I used multiple arguments and examples I got directly from the book during the section of the book I felt like I wasn't getting much from, so maybe it's better than I give it credit for.
If someone is on the fence about remote work, this book is great. If you want to go remote and you need help convincing your team, your manager, or your company executives, this book is great. If everyone is already on board with remote work and needs practical solutions to issues that arise, the book is... fine? I guess? It's mostly fine.
Most of the book is structured as a work of persuasion, something that's intended to convince people to go remote. A lot of it seems geared toward executives and managers, or giving lower-level employees ammunition and counterarguments for common objections. That's all well and good, but as someone who is already on-board with remote work and pretty experienced doing it for over 5 years, I don't personally need any convincing - I need help.
Going remote poses unique challenges and difficulties, and I thought the book might help give me some practical solutions to issues I've had with remote work as someone who prefers it and wants to be more successful with it. There's a little of that in the book, but it's mostly meant to persuade. I decided to read the book because I'm joining a new team that is fully distributed and having some struggles, and I was hoping this book would help me help them - but that's not really what's in here.
That said, since reading the book by total coincidence I've found myself involved in multiple conversations with people skeptical of remote work, and I used multiple arguments and examples I got directly from the book during the section of the book I felt like I wasn't getting much from, so maybe it's better than I give it credit for.
If someone is on the fence about remote work, this book is great. If you want to go remote and you need help convincing your team, your manager, or your company executives, this book is great. If everyone is already on board with remote work and needs practical solutions to issues that arise, the book is... fine? I guess? It's mostly fine.