Big Tech Won’t Be the Same If Everyone Works From Home
Virtual tools can’t replicate the intellectual frisson of gathering smart people together. As a result, innovation and productivity may suffer.
Tyler Cowen’s latest Bloomberg article on remote work. He brought up many of the points I have been talking about, but I disagree with his conclusion. He’s right to think the pace of innovation will slow if tech workers are dispersed all around the globe instead of working next to each other in the Bay. But it’s exactly because of this I think tech companies would not go that far on remote work. Facebook does not lack money. If it senses it’s getting less from remote people it will reverse course. Teams compete with each other internally. Each team lead wants the best people on their own team. If people phoning in from Kansas are dragging the team down they will get pushed out.