96109f71
3 years fully remote. at first it was amazing. then slowly:
- stopped asking questions because slack felt too formal
- stopped learning from senior engineers because i never overheard their conversations
- stopped getting spontaneous mentorship (the "hey look at this" moments)
- started solving everything by myself which made me slower and my solutions worse
im going back to hybrid voluntarily. roast me if you want but i peaked as an engineer when i was in an office 3 days a week
e23410ce
this is a valid experience but its not universal. i became a significantly better engineer remote because i stopped being interrupted every 20 minutes. different people different environments
303b4b34
the mentorship thing is real though. junior engineers suffer the most from remote work. the osmotic learning from sitting near senior people is irreplaceable and we pretend its not
01cd7977
you didnt become worse because of remote. you became worse because you stopped being proactive. you could have asked questions on slack, scheduled pairing sessions, joined office hours. remote requires more initiative, not less
84ac405c
"roast me if you want" ok. you going back to office so someone can hold your hand doesnt make you a better engineer. it makes you dependent on external structure. learn to create your own
7ea2c8c2
i think the truth is that remote work is amazing for experienced engineers who already have their workflows and terrible for early career people who need guidance. one size doesnt fit all
