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Comment by monkeyelite | Hacker News Reader

This is just true on its face. Imagine you were building a new CPU architecture and the head engineer was just not at the office.

Maybe people would agree if we change the word “best” to “most responsible” or “most accountable”.

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Mac OS X was largely ported to Intel by John Kullmann working remotely, close enough. (Several more engineers were added to the project but not until a year and a half after he started.)

https://www.quora.com/Apple-company/How-does-Apple-keep-secr...

A solo tech explore is not leading a project.

Forget leading a project, he completed most of it.

I didn’t say you couldn’t write a lot of code remotely.

I guess it depends on what you mean by “building a new CPU architecture.” Granted, porting an existing one to another existing one isn’t the same thing, but it’s as momentous an accomplishment, no?

Let me restate so there is no confusion.

Large projects, that require coordination with many people, are difficult to lead remotely. It tends to require building relationship and face-to-face problem solving to get alignment. The most valuable and well-paid engineers in the industry are these.

Projects which are technically difficult, but do not require leadership can often be done remotely. The best fit for a remote worker is someone using technical skills they already have, to further goals that are already defined. Many skilled engineers serve this function.

Does that clear it up?

I can imagine this just fine. I can also imagine the same thing, but a dragon is there, if that helps.

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