Nope - it takes fairly heavy wall current and charges for 2 hours at a shot, then drives for 2 hours... still less costly than feeding a push (and especially riding) mower with gasoline, but you'd need an impressive solar array to keep this running, and if you wanted more than 2 hours runtime when the sun isn't out, you'd also need a big battery pack.
Our neighbors can't hear it at all unless they walk up to the fence. Sometimes it will hit a twig and then you can hear a little buzzing inside, so, yeah, quiet.
Grass grows mostly in summer here. Summer is mostly hot here. Keeping up with the grass in the middle of summer is... challenging - the robot is great for that.
In dry season, the soil here gets powdery, and the robot gets stuck more, maybe once every 4-6 hours lately. I'm thinking about just shutting it off until the rains start, but there are some weeds that still grow when it's mostly dry....
Yeah, driving change from the top is easy (and often foolish.)
Luckily, or not, I don't have much of that problem. I am encouraged to "lead my peers," "manage without authority," and other such drivel that means: management wants the underlings to take care of themselves, so let them eat cake, or something, whatever, just don't bother us... fix it and you might get your bonus.
The art of driving is a social process, anticipation and prediction of the actions and reactions of your fellow motorists.
True cleansing of the mind involves blocking out external stimulus, focusing on not focusing, chanting a mantra, basically being oblivious to the world, yourself, and any problems that you might perceive. I see drivers doing it all the time, especially on the ramp from the interstate to the beltway.
When 999 drivers are focused on the art of driving and one is "cleansing their mind" inappropriately at a bad time and place (especially true when the roads are crowded), 998 drivers get to wait while the one, and the one they hit, are cleared from the travel lanes.
The interesting thing about attempting to be a driver of cultural change from office to remote work is that it is sort of impossible to drive change while simultaneously leading by example.
I have been invaluable to companies many times... when the company lacks cash flow, it doesn't matter how valuable you are: they simply cannot afford you.
I've thought about the merits of a rigid schedule vs flexible. I am currently pursuing the flexible route: be available whenever somebody wants me for a meeting, and stay home when not... overall, I think it's much better to say "he's always available if you give him at least 30 minutes notice" instead of "Tuesdays and Thursdays you'll have to bring him in by Skype..."
In the end, everything is bad for morale, or productivity, or both. In my management capacities, I at least try to steer the ship away from courses that are bad for both.
I overstated about the proper manager - I actually knew one once, didn't work for him, but worked in an adjacent department. He (effectively, not just words and wishes) protected his people from layoffs, got them promotions, and kept their working conditions - mostly - as ideal as possible.
That's one - out of dozens and dozens that I have seen in action that close.
All cases are different, but the cost of driving is rather high compared to the rollback savings on a thermostat.
Sure, if you've got a 4500 square foot McMansion that was built with poor insulation and you heat and cool it all the time you are home, but never when you are not, and drive a Prius (or, better still for the environment, a Yugo or other 20 year old sub-compact)... that math might work.
By the time you roll in infrastructure costs for giving you an office, and a road to get there on...
Yeah, I see people "cleansing their mind" every time I drive to work in rush hour... occasionally the near misses don't miss and things get expensive, time consuming, and occasionally bloody.
Getting up and answering e-mails before everyone else arrives at the office, likewise checking in in the evening and answering the East Coast late afternoon fallout before the West Coast goes home is not slacking.
Punching in at 9 sharp and heading to the coffee machine for 30 minutes, taking an hour or more for lunch, and a 30 minute social break somewhere in the middle of the morning and afternoon, before beating a path to the door at 4:59.... that's slacking.
Ironically, I find that I get much more out of the (dull, annoying) mandatory company training modules when I do them at home... I have the time to focus, actually read and understand instead of glance and sign, and there is a reason why those training modules are assigned. Sure, I knew all the underlying concepts 20 years ago, and have been practicing them ever since... but, the specific refreshers often bubble up important things that need doing, things that people standing around a watercooler (myself included) tend to forget.
In a sense, a mix of work from home and office time is embracing the value of diversity. Both environments offer advantages and disadvantages. Using only one environment exclusively denies you the advantages of the other.
Saying something on a company slack channel or creating a pull request comes with a lot more friction than walking into a co-workers office down the hall and running your "crazy" idea by them.
That all depends on the culture... cultures can adapt, many choose not to.
I agree, and, ironically, if people would learn remote work skills, they could (and some do) "Hey, you got a minute?" me from anywhere in the world.
90% of the time, the team is better off if I do have a minute and I can help them. 50% of the time, they are asking something that I can only help them with a "well, let's ask Google" approach. When I'm physically present in the office, I seem to get a whole lot more of those lower quality requests for help. Even when I get one remotely, I can handle it so much better - do the Google search for them, then copy-paste a decent looking starting point back to them.
Then there's the 10% of the time when interrupting me really would have a significant negative impact on something that is being developed for the project... when remote, the requests for help can be easily ignored...
The speakerphone conference call is one reason I prefer working from home - I can have open/loud conference calls without worry of bothering anyone, and without trying to scramble around to book a conference room.
Yes, teamwork and cohesion is important... however, at the end of the project, some things need to have gotten done.
I have literally, without exaggeration, witnessed 80 to 90% declines in actual productivity due to team coordination activities. Things that should take a week taking 2 to 3 months because of team coordination, meetings, informal meetings, drop-ins, re-discussion of issues that were discussed and decided months ago, circling back around to the original plan, etc.
The team is important, but it's all too easy for the job of teamwork to become the only thing that gets worked on. Team coordination is often characterized as "just take 5 minutes out of your day to talk to a colleague and save days of work down the line." All I can say is that in my experience: NOT.
Nope, employees all need that stare of disapproval to get them going. Without the manager's withering scowl, employees would all stay home, smoke weed and watch TV all day.
Major difference between my home and office working situation: at home, my office door locks, and my family knows to respect my space while I am working. At work, I have a cube, no door, and I am present to serve whoever makes the effort to walk to my cube entrance.
The family is still a distraction, but they're much easier to manage than the drop-in crowd.
I hope you're good enough to pull that off. I've had some "international developers" who seemed to think that it was acceptable to work a full-time day job in the home country while still charging 40 hours a week to the Americans for a few hours every evening they spend replying to e-mails on their cell-phone while out to dinner and maybe do 30-60 minutes of coding when they get home. It is not, and people who pull that crap will be replaced.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope - it takes fairly heavy wall current and charges for 2 hours at a shot, then drives for 2 hours... still less costly than feeding a push (and especially riding) mower with gasoline, but you'd need an impressive solar array to keep this running, and if you wanted more than 2 hours runtime when the sun isn't out, you'd also need a big battery pack.
Our neighbors can't hear it at all unless they walk up to the fence. Sometimes it will hit a twig and then you can hear a little buzzing inside, so, yeah, quiet.
Grass grows mostly in summer here. Summer is mostly hot here. Keeping up with the grass in the middle of summer is... challenging - the robot is great for that.
In dry season, the soil here gets powdery, and the robot gets stuck more, maybe once every 4-6 hours lately. I'm thinking about just shutting it off until the rains start, but there are some weeds that still grow when it's mostly dry....
Yeah, driving change from the top is easy (and often foolish.)
Luckily, or not, I don't have much of that problem. I am encouraged to "lead my peers," "manage without authority," and other such drivel that means: management wants the underlings to take care of themselves, so let them eat cake, or something, whatever, just don't bother us... fix it and you might get your bonus.
The art of driving is a social process, anticipation and prediction of the actions and reactions of your fellow motorists.
True cleansing of the mind involves blocking out external stimulus, focusing on not focusing, chanting a mantra, basically being oblivious to the world, yourself, and any problems that you might perceive. I see drivers doing it all the time, especially on the ramp from the interstate to the beltway.
When 999 drivers are focused on the art of driving and one is "cleansing their mind" inappropriately at a bad time and place (especially true when the roads are crowded), 998 drivers get to wait while the one, and the one they hit, are cleared from the travel lanes.
So, culture matters.
The interesting thing about attempting to be a driver of cultural change from office to remote work is that it is sort of impossible to drive change while simultaneously leading by example.
Yes: 1/60 final productivity rate is pretty normal - and larger teams tend to have even lower rates.
It can be better.
I have been invaluable to companies many times... when the company lacks cash flow, it doesn't matter how valuable you are: they simply cannot afford you.
I prefer unlimited vacation also, but I need to pay my mortgage with US dollars...
I've thought about the merits of a rigid schedule vs flexible. I am currently pursuing the flexible route: be available whenever somebody wants me for a meeting, and stay home when not... overall, I think it's much better to say "he's always available if you give him at least 30 minutes notice" instead of "Tuesdays and Thursdays you'll have to bring him in by Skype..."
In the end, everything is bad for morale, or productivity, or both. In my management capacities, I at least try to steer the ship away from courses that are bad for both.
I overstated about the proper manager - I actually knew one once, didn't work for him, but worked in an adjacent department. He (effectively, not just words and wishes) protected his people from layoffs, got them promotions, and kept their working conditions - mostly - as ideal as possible.
That's one - out of dozens and dozens that I have seen in action that close.
One word: insulation.
I think you're wrong.
All cases are different, but the cost of driving is rather high compared to the rollback savings on a thermostat.
Sure, if you've got a 4500 square foot McMansion that was built with poor insulation and you heat and cool it all the time you are home, but never when you are not, and drive a Prius (or, better still for the environment, a Yugo or other 20 year old sub-compact)... that math might work.
By the time you roll in infrastructure costs for giving you an office, and a road to get there on...
Yeah, I see people "cleansing their mind" every time I drive to work in rush hour... occasionally the near misses don't miss and things get expensive, time consuming, and occasionally bloody.
Getting up and answering e-mails before everyone else arrives at the office, likewise checking in in the evening and answering the East Coast late afternoon fallout before the West Coast goes home is not slacking.
Punching in at 9 sharp and heading to the coffee machine for 30 minutes, taking an hour or more for lunch, and a 30 minute social break somewhere in the middle of the morning and afternoon, before beating a path to the door at 4:59.... that's slacking.
Ironically, I find that I get much more out of the (dull, annoying) mandatory company training modules when I do them at home... I have the time to focus, actually read and understand instead of glance and sign, and there is a reason why those training modules are assigned. Sure, I knew all the underlying concepts 20 years ago, and have been practicing them ever since... but, the specific refreshers often bubble up important things that need doing, things that people standing around a watercooler (myself included) tend to forget.
In a sense, a mix of work from home and office time is embracing the value of diversity. Both environments offer advantages and disadvantages. Using only one environment exclusively denies you the advantages of the other.
Saying something on a company slack channel or creating a pull request comes with a lot more friction than walking into a co-workers office down the hall and running your "crazy" idea by them.
That all depends on the culture... cultures can adapt, many choose not to.
I agree, and, ironically, if people would learn remote work skills, they could (and some do) "Hey, you got a minute?" me from anywhere in the world.
90% of the time, the team is better off if I do have a minute and I can help them. 50% of the time, they are asking something that I can only help them with a "well, let's ask Google" approach. When I'm physically present in the office, I seem to get a whole lot more of those lower quality requests for help. Even when I get one remotely, I can handle it so much better - do the Google search for them, then copy-paste a decent looking starting point back to them.
Then there's the 10% of the time when interrupting me really would have a significant negative impact on something that is being developed for the project... when remote, the requests for help can be easily ignored...
The speakerphone conference call is one reason I prefer working from home - I can have open/loud conference calls without worry of bothering anyone, and without trying to scramble around to book a conference room.
I mow my lawn from 9pm to 6am, almost every night:
https://www.thebusyhomeowner.c...
Yes, teamwork and cohesion is important... however, at the end of the project, some things need to have gotten done.
I have literally, without exaggeration, witnessed 80 to 90% declines in actual productivity due to team coordination activities. Things that should take a week taking 2 to 3 months because of team coordination, meetings, informal meetings, drop-ins, re-discussion of issues that were discussed and decided months ago, circling back around to the original plan, etc.
The team is important, but it's all too easy for the job of teamwork to become the only thing that gets worked on. Team coordination is often characterized as "just take 5 minutes out of your day to talk to a colleague and save days of work down the line." All I can say is that in my experience: NOT.
Nope, employees all need that stare of disapproval to get them going. Without the manager's withering scowl, employees would all stay home, smoke weed and watch TV all day.
Major difference between my home and office working situation: at home, my office door locks, and my family knows to respect my space while I am working. At work, I have a cube, no door, and I am present to serve whoever makes the effort to walk to my cube entrance.
The family is still a distraction, but they're much easier to manage than the drop-in crowd.
All work and no play makes for a shallow character... do make sure to get out and live life some too.
I hope you're good enough to pull that off. I've had some "international developers" who seemed to think that it was acceptable to work a full-time day job in the home country while still charging 40 hours a week to the Americans for a few hours every evening they spend replying to e-mails on their cell-phone while out to dinner and maybe do 30-60 minutes of coding when they get home. It is not, and people who pull that crap will be replaced.