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Comment by pxlpshr | Hacker News Reader

Three 30" monitors. Actually, we let you spend up to $10K on your setup, however you think best.

makes you want to take on VC money with those kind of perks. :) we have a small amount of angel money but as founder I took half salary so we could spend a few bucks on decent monitors and task chairs for the developers. they could be better but we had to cheap it this first round.

I wonder how many hours a day Asana expects developers to crunch? My guys aren't addicted to Facebook/Twitter and we don't have office distractions or other 'perks'. We work all day in the zone, and I usually cut them off at 6pm and force them to go home so they stay mentally fresh.

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It's surprising how little you need for a truly good setup. Me?

    * $1000 - One 30" monitor
    * $2200 - One 15" Macbook Pro, fully kitted
    *  $100 - One DualLink DVI-DisplayPort adapter
    * $1000 - One virtual development server running Linux
    *  $250 - Amortized cost of the build cluster
    *  $200 - Miscellany (keyboard, sound-dampening headphones)

That's, what, two weeks of salary at retail prices? And the only thing that really needs to be replaced on a regular basis is the Macbook -- two years should be fine.

Considering the potential productivity drop by making someone work on inferior hardware, I cannot understand why you would skimp here. I will tell you that if I ever work someplace that tries to hand me a nineteen inch monitor, or even two of them, I will shell out for my own thirty-incher and bring it to work with me.

You act like the web was weaved on 30"s. :)

ps. regarding the $100 DVI/display port adapter... you should check out MonoPrice. I get all my A/V gear from there and it's certainly comparable to overpriced AAPL and monster cables.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=DVI-Dis...

Appreciated.

That 10k probably also includes desk+chair+etc.

side note: reminded me why I hate office hours, being "forced" (i'm sure you don't literally force them out of the office) would drive me nuts. I find i'm really productive crazy hours. hence why i'm sat in the office at 6PM on a saturday night. on hacker news. i digress.

Asana is a pre-launch VC funded startup: I'd expect they'll trust the employees to work till they feel they're done for the day.

Seems like a killer company to work at. Amazing team. Best VCs in the business. Everyone that is anyone as an advisor. Etc.

I actually like being forced (or forcing myself) to stop working. I've never regretted stopping work to go hang out with family or friends. I have regretted missing some fun life things because something had to be done. Almost always it turns out what I was working on could have easily waited.

I actually do force them out of the office around 6-7pm because the office is my apartment and I live with my girlfriend who gets home around that time. (that doesn't mean work has to stop if they want to continue when they get home)...

I agree with you in principle, once we get office space everyone will have a key and the schedule will be a little more flexible.

I do think there is something to be said for balance however. Working 12 hours one day and only 4 the next because you're burned isn't necessarily more or less productive. The issue I have with this is that it hinges on the assumption that you can operate as a lone-wolf, and often that's just not the case... mobile, web, and product (design) are working together in unison a majority of the time. We don't have the benefit of overlap right now. There's just three of us and were just getting started so there's a lot more collaboration at this junction.

Funny you mention that. When I first read the ad, I couldn't help but feel like this was some kind of reincarnation of the spending during the dotcom boom around 2000.

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