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Comment by peng | Hacker News Reader

Along with perfect visual and coding skills, "The Valley" wants designers in-house and under control. If companies want to hire talent, they need to be more willing to hire remotely. What's holding them back is the irrational fear of losing control. "How can I make sure he's working a full eight hours a day?" "What if he drops off the face the earth?"

Interface design can be done from anywhere on the globe. It's silly to restrict your hires only to locals or those desperate enough to relocate.

The anachronism that is http://hoveringartdirectors.tumblr.com offers a glimpse at the absurdity (and unintentional hilarity) of working in-house. How is hovering more efficient than viewing the design on your own monitor? Which is a more realistic use-case of your application? Actually using the app yourself, or standing by someone and having them show you?

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> Along with perfect visual and coding skills, "The Valley" wants designers in-house and under control. If companies want to hire talent, they need to be more willing to hire remotely.

This is a brash condemnation. In my experience startups are just as willing to hire remote as any other business, with the possible exception of those who have no local talent at all.

> Interface design can be done from anywhere on the globe. It's silly to restrict your hires only to locals or those desperate enough to relocate.

For the past 3 years, I've worked for possibly the most distributed startup in history. At one point I think we were averaging something like 1.8 people per country, with the largest time zone gap being 8 hours between Sydney and Palo Alto. I've telecommuted for several other jobs and a ton of contract work as well.

I know how to be effective remotely, and certainly running a startup this way gives you a hiring advantage, but it's not without significant downsides. The idea that it's about hovering or butts-in-seats is a strawman to the extreme; that type of attitude is a sign of failing before you started anyway.

The reason to all be together is that the collaboration is better. You will share ideas better, iterate faster, experience less friction in communication, and feed directly off the communal energy. You can take steps to narrow the gap with technology, but even a full-time video conference link is not the same as physical presence. I don't blame any founder for keeping everyone in one place.

There is a fine line between feedback and hovering/control. It all boils down to the inter personal relation and the respect you have for the other person (professionally and as a human being).

I have worked with both extremes. People who even after being far off want to control and are able to control every aspect of your work till you get frustrated enough and people who even after sitting right next to you know how to "lose control".

Currently I am working with people from the "Valley" who also happen to know how to give great feedback while also giving complete artistic freedom. At the same time they also know when to cut my ideas short when they do not align with the product. Win win for all and at the end of the day a great experience for the person using the product (hate the word user).

As far as the opinion to the article, I believe much before looking for a technical acumen, companies especially startups should look for the right product sense in the designers. A designer who does not understand the how to program can create great design but a designer who fails to understand the core values and strategy of the product is a ticking time bomb.

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