Where We Work#

The Difference Engine is a distributed venture studio at ASU. While our HQ is in Southern California, the majority of our team is located in Phoenix, AZ as of this writing, as are the majority of our students. Our board members live around the country, and some overseas. 

The general policy at The Engine is that where you work from is less important than the work you do. There are some requirements for in person work, but these are assessed and mandated on an as-needed basis and in accordance with any pre-existing ASU policies.

Cycles#

We work in 6-week cycles at The Difference Engine. This fixed cadence serves to give us an internal sense of urgency, to keep projects from ballooning, and to provide us with a regular interval to make decisions about what we’re working on.

Every six week cycle is punctuated by a two-week "cool down" period where work for the upcoming cycle is reassessed, unfinished work is completed, and usually some rest and time off is taken as needed.

Sometimes big batch projects extend into cool down, but we try to avoid that.

Work Hard. Then Stop.#

We limit ourselves to a 40-hour work week. Keeping our hours at work limited forces us to prioritize the work that really matters. A healthy amount of sleep and a rich and rewarding life outside of work should not be squandered for a few more hours at work.

There are occasions when teams or individuals need to work off-hours for on-call emergencies. But this should be a rare occurrence ... or if you are truly passionate about a project you are working on ... in which case we won't stop you :)