inessential by Brent Simmons

How I Work with Other People These Days

I no longer work on Glassboard, and don’t get any benefit at all if you use it.

So I feel totally comfortable telling you that I use it all the time. I do.

I have a few projects going with other people. Some are software projects and some aren’t. Here’s the mix of apps we use:

Back in the ’70s and ’80s I was obsessed with hi-fi systems. In those days there were lots of all-in-one systems: tuner, amp, turntable, cassette deck, and speakers. (Sometimes the speakers were detachable.)

But those were the crappy, cut-rate systems. A real audiophile would buy separate components — the best components they could afford — and create their own system.

What I like about this mix is that we could swap out any part of it — GitHub instead of Bitbucket, for instance, if we liked it better. Just like buying a better tuner.

* * *

Note one thing not on the list: nothing real-time. No chat, no irc, no Skype.

If you’re a larger company like Omni or Black Pixel, a full-time chat room might make sense. But for groups of two or three people, when is everybody in front of their computer and in a state where they could be interrupted? Not that often.

Also not on the list: shared calendar. That may need to change, at least for some of the projects. I find shared calendars a pain. (I have a hell of a time figuring out how to make Google calendars work, at least.)