An odd feeling: this period seems to be evidence for most people that remote work's The Future, but it's pushing me the other way! In its absence I find myself forcefully drawn to face-to-face collaboration, shared physical studio spaces, long lunchtime walking discussions, etc.
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This may be mostly about a difference in style of work. Or maybe it's just a sign of fogeyism.
I feel more in love with live, synchronous SF "Global Weird HQ" culture than ever! I'm throwing wistful paper airplane love letters to it from up in a high castle! 👋
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It's likely more a sign of my own failings than anything else, but I've never been able to make deeply generative collaborations work remotely. Tried many models with many people! Procedural, separable work: sure! But with generative work, best I've seen is "bad but tolerable."
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I'd love to learn from successes here! I've read many articles, threads, stories on remote collaboration practices, but almost exclusively with a frame of execution and operations, separable tasks and skillsets. I'd love to read stories of ideation, invention, free jazz, etc.
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Oddly, one of the best models I have here is old-school correspondence. People working mostly independently on creative projects, sending each other long letters (emails) every few months with distilled thoughts and wonderings. A different kind of collaboration, but quite good.
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Human contact and face-to-face interaction will always remain important, but having to relocate for a job or commute hours every day to get to work should be a thing of the past. Remote working is here to stay. Those that don’t embrace it will end up losing the best talent.
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That's indeed been a common result for me in the past! :)
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Yes, it looks like variable time spent at the office is the best. Team bonding and certain project stages require in-person interaction. At other times WFH wins due to convenience.
But full remote work is the more likely outcome.
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Yes, in the model you describe, maintaining a full-time office may make little sense—it may be more about intermittent retreats in rented locations, etc.
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I think feelings like this might be more a side-effect of having to go fully-remote so quickly. I've been 100% remote for over 5 years and the first few months had their challenges but I ended up preferring it to in-office work.
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