A review by savanna36c34
Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried

2.0

This wasn't as in-dept or well-researched as I had hoped, and it skews very heavily toward to programming and web development side of things. I was disappointed because I had expected a less inductive and less industry-specific approach. I also found the writing a bit on the trite side and sometimes condescending. If the book were presented more as a memoir and guide to 37signals, I would have found it less grating (and also not read it). But as someone (an editor) who's been a remote worker for years and who plans to remain one, I found this book neither terribly enlightening nor informative. It only focused on one industry, and it didn't touch on remote work's ethical or anthropological significance—even in broad strokes—which was a missed opportunity. It reads more as a series of blog posts or magazine articles than a cohesive trade book. The last grievance I had with this book was that it comes off a bit too much like an ad for 37signals, whose products I had used for years and found lacking. If you're looking for a strongly researched account of remote work across industries that doesn't assume you've barely used the Internet, this isn't it.