I always like to throw out crazy ideas to rough up some feathers. Also love to receive and dish out criticism. Here it goes.. The app store is the best platform ever created for people, not to have to face the real world! Being able to sit at home (mom's basement or not) and have millions of customers at your disposal is awesome. Life skills? What are those? Give me a used mac mini any day of the week over working a minimum wage job. A new generation that chooses to pass go with out moving and still demanding to collect the 200 $ is a new economy. Work ? Are you kidding me? You want me to do what? Does it all fall apart when you are standing in front of your future father in law ( you are dating the pizza girl that delivers your order to the back door ) and you all of a sudden remember that you have absolutely no life skills while you are stuttering to say hello.
My pizza girl is a 50 year old turkish man. So I won't date her anytime soon But srlsy working from home does not mean you don't have to pass up on social life. It even means you can have more social life as you can easily decide when you can have free time.
Most of the people I know who work from home (myself included) have awesome social lives because they can schedule their work day around cool crap that's going on. *shrug*
It is different if you already have life skills. Then everything is a lot easier. If you are starting out in life and choose app development as a profession the danger of addiction is enormous. That addiction can easily keep you away from those life experiences that shape and form your personality. Awesome times for talented developers but it is also important to keep your world real.
Who's to say what's real? You're defining "real" by other people's standards -- or your own desires. Do what you (not other people) want, if you are not comfortable with that do something else.
I don't even understand what is being argued in this thread anymore. Are we assuming this is taking place in some kind of futuristic dystopian society where you are literally birthed in to your workplace? Why wouldn't you develop social skills through school?
Yeah, if you assume you haven't made any friends in school then probably you're right But then you would be some sort of disturbed personality anyways - indifferent if you made apps or worked at the local grocery store.
"You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And, I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes"
It's true. Our entire team works on their own schedule and takes on an active social life... Plus, game developers definitely need these life skills as we frequent bars and such to meet members of the media and to promote our products.
working from home is nice. when you get paid for it it's even nicer Though I must admit there are a lot of things about being part of a larger team, and working in an office environment that I miss. The electricity of the creative process, being involved and getting spillover from other departments other than your own, all of that is very valuable to pick up life-experience from that you can't really get from just being planted at your desk at home. Some people rent out office space for themselves in larger buildings, to feel more like they are in a work-environment even though they are just doing their own thing. Sounds a little wacky at 1st but makes sense when you think on it - and it's nice to have that differentiation between "this is my work space" and "this is my home," I don't even look at my living room as a place where one would relax and unwind anymore, the computer is always sitting there staring at me "come on there's stuff to do."
+1 I've also been thinking about finding office space even though I don't really need it. It's great working from home, working from the beach, working from random places around the world, but sometimes I miss being in an office working with colleagues.
Hello Gravity Jim, I am a little lost here. The assumption that it has never been so easy to avoid the real world as a young app developer is 100% correct. Not quite sure why that statement sets off alarm bells. Having the app store at our disposal really means that ' a basement economy' can thrive. As a side effect you don't need human contact to make enough money to pay your bills. Of course it is about choice if you do want to face the real world you can. The option not too is very real. Believe me a lot of people are focussed and addicted to "Dig in and lock the doors" to pursue this addiction of presenting their creations to the 100 million plus audience. It is a real vortex! I am not judging it as good or bad, but one thing is for sure, for some people app development can be a very lonely existence.
+1000 I was a graphist freelancer for 3 years, working at home, and oh god how I will never do that again. You're your own boss, you plan your own working hours, for sure ... But you're definitely alone 80% of your time (as work represents 80% of our daytime). Plus it's super-hard to maintain a sane way of life : - First year you wake up at 9.00 a.m, work a full straight line to 7.00 p.m with a 1 hour lunch break. Week-ends are still enjoyable. - Second year you learn to manage your time so well that you end up waking up at 10.30 a.m, have a 2 hours lunch break, four 30 minutes mini-breaks, and don't care to work till midnight. - Third year, you end as being a total zombie, waking up at lunch time, having a completely fragmented work schedule, begging for your friends to join you at the pub at 2.00 a.m mid-week, and you don't have a single week-end / holiday where you are able to say "I won't work today". You also realize you aren't able to tell if you're in your bedroom or in a work jail. In one word, your lifestyle is completely shifted from the other majority of people on the long term. So Syndicate_Puzzle is not very far from the truth. Work at home is cool in essence, but not really viable long term. Society is neccessary for the mind, and the health. At least that's what I concluded from my experience ...
Well it certainly would bring some sort of meaning to an agoraphobic's life if given the chance and they had the skills. But working from home has its pluses and minuses - many of which have been touched upon. I am lucky to have been able to have adapted my job so that my main "office" is my home. It has afforded me opportunities I never would have had, but it certainly requires a discipline not necessary when you have to go and click the time clock.
Removing the 9-5 grind from your life frees you up to do anything. If Sinecure was profitable enough to quit my day job I'd move around the world and work on apps. Sheesh. Think bigger.
Wow Sinecure Industries, To think bigger you need life experience. Without life experience travelling the world building apps isn't an option. It takes a level of sophistication to think big.
I think life experience is what you get out of managing your daily routine, no matter its a home based job or office based, whether social or computer based. Life experience is not like some holy script that would be bestowed on you if you roam around. So to me, discipline is a tool to be mastered to get better life experience. Whatever you do making most out of time each day, contributes towards how you are facing the real world.