I find this post and many remote-advocacy posts like it are overly optimistic about the problem of timezone differences. A critical flaw is that most of the "solutions" mentioned assume you're all working at the same time. (Skype, G+ Hangouts, chatrooms.) That may be ok for workers living in less expensive parts of America or the western hemisphere, but that certainly doesn't hold true for overseas workers, which is what Paul Graham is mostly talking about with immigration.
An 8-12 hour timezone gap is not something easily bridged by chatrooms and videoconferences. To even have a conversation with the remote worker/team, one or both of you need to schedule time at very early or late hours and even then you only get a little bit of overlap. For the most part you are left to collaborate by email or blogs -- which is a significantly degraded way of collaborating, much moreso than just not being face-to-face. Without an easy way to have a realtime conversation, closing the loop on an issue can take 24 hours.. or several days if there is a lot of back and forth.
This style of working can be very difficult in a highly dynamic, less structured, fast moving startup environment. It is not magically solved by "modern communication tools" or high-latency asynchronous working styles. The fundamental issue is.. daylight and human sleep schedules.
I wish all conversations about remote work would qualify which context they're talking about -- near or far timezones -- instead of just lumping it all together as "remote work from anywhere".
An 8-12 hour timezone gap is not something easily bridged by chatrooms and videoconferences. To even have a conversation with the remote worker/team, one or both of you need to schedule time at very early or late hours and even then you only get a little bit of overlap. For the most part you are left to collaborate by email or blogs -- which is a significantly degraded way of collaborating, much moreso than just not being face-to-face. Without an easy way to have a realtime conversation, closing the loop on an issue can take 24 hours.. or several days if there is a lot of back and forth.
This style of working can be very difficult in a highly dynamic, less structured, fast moving startup environment. It is not magically solved by "modern communication tools" or high-latency asynchronous working styles. The fundamental issue is.. daylight and human sleep schedules.
I wish all conversations about remote work would qualify which context they're talking about -- near or far timezones -- instead of just lumping it all together as "remote work from anywhere".