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This sort of thing is why tech is never going to be “fully remote”. The in-person transmission of tacit knowledge is too valuable.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

· Jul 12, 2020

Replying to @andy_matuschak and @sashadem

Legitimate peripheral participation was also key. Especially as a total design noob, it was so valuable to simply be in a room with people like @imranchaudhri—not necessarily contributing to a design but merely trying to interpret what he was saying into something implementable.

Nabeel

@nabeelqu

Jul 12, 2020

More “pure execution” work can shift to remote, sure. But the best tech companies rely on the creation of *magic*, and magic is created in-person.

Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Replying to

@nabeelqu

I agree. It feels like an increasingly unpopular stance to adopt! I’ve worked with many wonderful remote collaborators and have tried many approaches, but none are even slightly as effective for this as working in the same physical space.

5:18 PM · Jul 12, 2020TweetDeck

Replying to

Yeah. I learned way more about what it actually takes to start a company by watching some incredibly determined founders do it — day to day — than any other possible mode of transmission. Same with watching great designers & devs at work. There’s too many small details!

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Jul 13, 2020

On first order, I think many people can get away with simply rejecting that default. But it would be better to change the default. I'm not sure how to achieve that systematically, but I suspect the market will reward wiser actors. Apple was quite serene (mostly email-based)