Book Club: Remote, Office Not Required - Jason Fried

Remote was a really influential book for me.  I read it about 3 years ago when I was just in the early phases of my freelance linux/development work and it definitely inspired me on a few levels.

The book “Remote” discusses the benefits for both the employee (lifestyle freedom) as well as the employer (lower costs, more productive/happier employees) and on and on.  The authors are founders of a company called 37 Signals, who built a massively profitable software company with just a few guys in different corners of the globe.  If anyone is qualified to discuss the benefits and challenges of distributed teams it’s these guys.

We all have fantasized about traveling the world and being able to make an income from just your laptop.  Images of sitting on a beach with wifi, simultaneously taking in a sunset while checking in on your digital empire are powerfully attractive to many.

While I’m not sure how well you can focus and type in a beach chair, making your living from a laptop, doing WHATEVER/WHEREVER are completely plausible for the majority of careers these days. 

For me, the draw of being able to design my lifestyle was what started me on the path to fully remote work.  The difficulty with a physical 9-5 job is that it’s very nature shackles you to one city, one commute and one schedule.  There’s very rarely flexibility in the hours you work during the day, even if you’re more productive earlier or later.  Not to mention most people spend at least 30-60 minutes a day commuting.  Even more if you count getting ready in the morning and unwinding at night from the travel.

“Remote”  argues these points and more (including challenges) with ease.  It’s written with short chapters and lots of goofy artwork.  If you have virtually (hah!) any interest in remote working, this book is for you.  You can get on amazon.