Oh right, livejournal.
In case it isn't obvious, I went back to my other blog when the parallels gig ended. I learned a bunch and Kir is a great guy (running the OpenVZ both with him at scale was the highlight of the whole experience), but looking back I have a few observations:
1) Telecommuting for a company on the other side of the planet is challenging even when you're _not_ their only telecommuter. Being on the other side of the planet from a bunch of guys all in the same building is not a happy thing.
2) The technologies pitched in an interview (containers!) and the technologies you wind up working exclusively on the entire time (NFS) aren't always on the same continent either.
3) Culture clashes can be a thing. (The Russian consulate had a brochure warning me about the not smiling thing. It should have had one about "If someone has a complaint, they will stop talking/replying to you for months until the source of the complaint goes away. When this is your immediate supervisor, it can be a problem.")
I am sad that two round trips to the other side of the planet don't add up to enough Delta frequent flyer miles to get one domestic flight. I am happy I don't have to go there again. (When your trip preparation instructions explain the amount of cash you should carry to pay the standard police officer bribe from the random shakedowns, when the water cooler conversation is explaining _why_ the government stole an oil company, when you have to assure relatives that the bomb in the airport was a week after your trip and anyway it was the _other_ airport in the capital city, when boingboing coincidentally posts more than one long article about the murder and kidnapping of foreign entrepreneurs impacting investment in that country... Not a place I felt a huge _need_ for a third visit to.)
Still: learning experience.
Rob
1) Telecommuting for a company on the other side of the planet is challenging even when you're _not_ their only telecommuter. Being on the other side of the planet from a bunch of guys all in the same building is not a happy thing.
2) The technologies pitched in an interview (containers!) and the technologies you wind up working exclusively on the entire time (NFS) aren't always on the same continent either.
3) Culture clashes can be a thing. (The Russian consulate had a brochure warning me about the not smiling thing. It should have had one about "If someone has a complaint, they will stop talking/replying to you for months until the source of the complaint goes away. When this is your immediate supervisor, it can be a problem.")
I am sad that two round trips to the other side of the planet don't add up to enough Delta frequent flyer miles to get one domestic flight. I am happy I don't have to go there again. (When your trip preparation instructions explain the amount of cash you should carry to pay the standard police officer bribe from the random shakedowns, when the water cooler conversation is explaining _why_ the government stole an oil company, when you have to assure relatives that the bomb in the airport was a week after your trip and anyway it was the _other_ airport in the capital city, when boingboing coincidentally posts more than one long article about the murder and kidnapping of foreign entrepreneurs impacting investment in that country... Not a place I felt a huge _need_ for a third visit to.)
Still: learning experience.
Rob