Until just a few years ago James Hamilton (who the article is about) was a fairly remote worker—as he was circumnavigating on his boat, which they decided to stop:
This article draws comparison’s to James Somer’s article on Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, The Friendship That Made Google. Where Somer’s was able to draw out the idiosyncratic detail of what made those engineer’s tick, this article reads as vague. It’s often pulling in praise from other industry big shots and that praise is so general, for example Hamilton’s “broad and deep” knowledge, that it sounds like politicians praising other politicians. If you want to write a credible puff piece for a distinguished engineer you should be a lot more grounded in the details of the engineering.
*2013
“But he’s untethered. Sometimes, he takes the boat to Hawaii — and works from there.”
Got bad news for ya buddy. You’re in office 5 days a week.