Comment by LeonM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeonM | Hacker News Reader

I've been a solo dev for about 7 years now, these are my findings:

# Working from home ('free')

Working from home is great for about 6 months, then isolation kicks in and the divide between work and relaxing disappears. Given my situation (single, no kids) I quickly become very lonely. A separate in house office helps for a separation between work and not-work, as long as you have the discipline not to use your office space for something else. (locking your office after work hours helps).

# Renting an office (~1000 eur/month)

Can quickly become lonely as well, and can be quite expensive once you add costs for the cafeteria, internet, insurance etc. It does give you social interaction during lunch breaks, and no disturbance during work. There is also a very distinct separation of work and relax time. I did this for a couple of years, but once again I felt lonely and was craving for social interaction, a.k.a. colleagues.

# Coworking place (~300 eur/month)

This is my current setup, I rent a fixed desk in a large open space. In this space there are about ~8 fixed desks and about 10 flex spaces. We have sound insulated phone booths, so it's usually pretty quiet here. My 'coworkers' don't understand my work but that's ok. I use noise-canceling headphones when I need to concentrate. Personally I love it, it's been my favorite setup so far.

I think your specific situation has a HUGE impact on how much you'll enjoy working from home.

I'm married, have 4 kids, and I never feel lonely at home. I totally get how a single guy / gal with no kids would, though.

I never found any issues with dividing work / life, though. I have a dedicated office, and I believe it's a huge part of it.

I'm in the same situation. Renting small office, alone. When I need to work, I'm going to the office. Can't work from home - kids don't distinguish work hours from family hours. Having separate place for work is mental healthy.

I guess it's a matter of education. My kids know when I'm at work; I close my door. Doesn't mean they never bother me, but it's not too bad. When they do, I simply tell them no. My youngest still has a hard time with this, but she's only ~15 months old.

You have to be consistent with it, though.

I've heard of people making a name tag so their kids know when they're working, even if they're not in the office (e.g. taking a small break).

However, my biggest source of interruptions when my door is closed is my wife. I keep telling her to only bother me for "important" things, but we have very different definitions of "important". It's a work in progress and getting better everyday. I've considered renting some office space when I really need to focus, but so far I've been able to get enough done that I don't want to trade the benefits for a little more concentration.

@emilcantin that really depends. I know many people who want to go to an office just to be around other people than just their SO and kids.

My biggest problem is getting interrupted by my spouse and kids, but that happened before with my coworkers, so I consider this an upgrade. Sometimes interruptions are welcome, sometimes they're not.

I've thought about renting office space so I can have somewhere to go when I really can't be interrupted. But so far, I've been able to work it out.

I was going to come here and say this, but you beat me to it. I work from home, and also have children.

They won't LET me get my priorities out of whack. :)

So we complained about open offices back in the day, but compared to isolation, most people end up going back to a big open space with humans talking? :)

We still complain about open offices, the GP even said he has to use noise cancelling headphones.

He likes the coworking space because he is lonely and want's a social aspect in his office space.

Agreed, I think there are benefits to either or both... I prefer to have people around, but use noise cancelling headphones when head-down coding (so to speak) and don't want interruptions.

I prefer to work in an office, because for me it isn't even family at home, it's just too easy to distract myself and be away from my desk at home.

All one or the other is bad. When you work at home, you can choose when you go to the office vs staying at home.

I have kids, so working at home has some downsides, so I've actually been considering renting office space (or a co-working space) to have a couple days where I'm not around my family to get serious work done. I wouldn't go there every day, just; 3 days/week at most.

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