I started working in the software industry in the summer between my first and second high school year. I worked during my school holidays in a company called K&S Consulting d.o.o.
It was all very exciting; I learned new things, worked on web pages, had a lunch breaks, poped out for a fag every now and then and didn’t think much about the work environment I was in. That went on for about 4 years and then I went to collage, which brought me more time to work there and with that, bigger projects. I also started reading Joel on software about then.
That changed everything. I learned I am not productive in a room full of people. And with this new discovery I went to the bosses, which gave me funny looks and didn’t do a thing about it. Projects I was working on ware getting boring and so I decided that what would be best, is to work from home, where there would be peace and quite, and nobody to look at my high score in solitaire.
Luckily for me, my current boss contacted me if I wanted to work for him at Popcom. I would be working on mojvideo.com, with the tools I liked, I would work at home, have a bigger salary and work on something that is actually fun and people like to use.
That was about a year and a half ago. And now I realize that working from home is quite actually killing me. Yes it is fun to wake up anytime I want and just move from my bed to the computer, but that also means that I can wake up at 12am and then don’t do a thing that day. Which means I can’t go on a holiday because I don’t have any money. It also means that I spend most of my time at home, I don’t meet new people and I have to write a email if I have a new idea and so on.
Fortunately my boss has come to the same conclusion and he is now actively looking for a office (and offices are apparently so rare, you have a better chance to be eaten by a shark, than find one). When he finds one, I will be forced to wake up at the same hour every day, drive to work, chat a little and then be productive and get work done. And because I won’t be at home all day, I will meet new people when I go for lunch or a fag (the next time I start smoking again), I will be able to have a car crash on the way to work and other exciting things will happen to me, which just don’t if you sit at home all day.
But the thing I look forward the most, is the time I will have for myself in my car, while driving to and from work. That is when I will have the time to think, find solutions to my problems and brainstorm new ideas. Because when I’m at home, I feel stupid if I just sit around doing nothing so I always waste time with things like tv shows and playing solitaire.