The short answer is quality of life, and freedom to live my life the way that is most comfortable for me and my wife. I love the city so I choose to live in the city, but that choice is completely irrelevant to my work, as I can live / work from anywhere. The long answer is below.

I don't personally do well with the same schedule every day, which was a constant issue when I had regular jobs. The more I tried to fit into the day the world wanted me to fit into the less happy I became. It's not the work. I honestly love the work I do, but I abhor having a "job".

I have a lot of other reasons I don't like working at an office. I'll try to list a few off the top of my head.

- I don't like having "office friends".

- I can't stand office politics

- Scheduling meeting rooms is confusing and silly

- It seems a lot of time is wasted in meetings and in between tasks

- I don't enjoy being locked to a single place in order to get things done that I can do anywhere.

- I spend a lot of time wandering around and staring in space while I try to work out a problem, and the office was never really conducive to that.

- These days with the open plan offices, forget it. The last startup I worked with was acquired by a company you've probably heard of and as much as I truly liked the people there, I couldn't get a single thing done in that place. Headphones kind of helped, but I felt like I was at a lunch table in high school. I only had to work in that office for about a week per quarter, and it was my least productive week per quarter.

So on to the pros of my situation

- I can work wherever and whenever I want; This is generally in my office at my sit-stand desk with my three monitors and fancy chair, but if I want to fire up my fire-pit and break out my laptop, as I did last night, nothing stops me - besides maybe the weather. Coffee Shops, Shared Spaces, Airports, Other Cities, Seaside Towns, Cabins in the Woods, etc are all perfectly acceptable places for me to work upon my whim.

- I generally allow my sleep schedule to change naturally, so sometimes I sleep days and work nights. I get tons more done when that happens, and without anyone to report to outside of a weekly stand-up, it's a total non-issue.

- I can do a couple hours of work and then go run errands, and then a couple more, and then have lunch with a friend, and then a couple more and make some dinner and then answer a few emails, and my day is through. I've put the same amount of work in, but I've had a full, accomplished, and social day.

- My time is rarely wasted. If I'm not able to focus for the day, I'll just leave my desk and come back to it later or the next day.

- My friends are all my actual real friends who I like to see regardless of what industry they work in. I hang out with some of the people I work with, but that's entirely by choice, when we happen to be in the same city.

- I probably set an alarm two or three times a year. I generally like to wake up whenever, take my time to make breakfast, make or go and get coffee/tea, sit on my front porch for a bit to read the news, and then kiss my wife, make my way into my office and shut the door. It's kind of like a commute, but it's just me making my way through the house "on the way to work".

Obviously my way won't work for everyone, but after 18 years like this, I'm not sure I could ever go back.