After a few days working from home, here you have my preliminary conclusions about this first -and almost real- experience telecommuting:

• These have been highly productive days. You can be completely focused on whatever you are working on, and absolutely forget about your environment. For me, that means walking around my flat talking alone about the best way to implement something, asking my cat about the best names for important classes, having short naps when reaching a deadlock, etc. Well, the usual stuff when working alone :D
• I love the mid-morning shower. Forget about games, unlimited drinks, free food and sofas. Showers should be mandatory on every reasonable work place. Oh, wait! Sofas are great. All these days I’ve working from my confortable sofa. Forget only about games, drinks and food :)
• Second favorite and refreshing moment when telecommuting is the lunch break: visit your closest supermarket, choose some fresh products for a quick lunch, breath some fresh air, look at the faces of that other people around you, go back home, cook something tasty, relax for a few minutes and go back to work. I’m pretty sure this is way better than any massages given by someone hired by your super cool company.
• Working from home is great, but you need people around you, a cat is just not enough. 100% telecommuting is too much. Even they are not working in the same stuff, simply talking to other people is a powerful tool to stimulate your creativity. In a way, this works like the mutation operator in genetic algorithms. People around you charges your mind with diversity, fresh ideas and alternative points of view. Ok, this does not only apply when developing software, but I’m still only talking about that :D
• And finally, you need a life. You always need a life, but when telecommuting, it’s mandatory to have an active social life. You need something that forces you to stop working in your amazing project, leave your home and do whatever you want: have some drinks with friends, getting around by bike, … whatever, but leave you home.

So, to sum up, I’m loving it! :) It’s good for me and it’s great for the company. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t seem to be as popular as it should be in technological companies. Be that as it may, now I’m sure telecommuting needs to be part of that imaginary job I’m always looking for, of course, together with massive amounts of money and happiness, outstanding quality of life, exciting and changing challenges, etc. Mr jobs effusively explained the idea some years ago:

”[…] You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

  — Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address