We've been talking about learning organisations for years, and the importance of a documental culture has been clear for a long time. However, most companies have never truly implemented these models. Remote work forces them to do so, or they'll fail. So, even though it's been "theorised for a long time" and widely dissected, remote work it's effectively a new thing, and it's sadly normal to encounter many problems, especially with management that lacks even the most basic substantial IT skills to truly work in a virtual company, and not just management, but a large part of all the staff too.

I'm one of those who are very productive working remotely, but not out of loyalty or some "ethics/morals". It's simply because, as an engineer, I seek efficiency, and remote work is efficient. I suffer from inefficiencies, rituals created to placate bipedal cattle, and senseless reactionary attitudes. We are few, I imagine, but we are also the cohort that innovates, at various levels and in various sectors, without whom I don't know how much the West could hold on, and this, indeed, is not free.

Today, with RTO, a social rift is forming between those who want to truly advance and those who merely muddle through, while the world moves forward. If this trend isn't reversed, the West, which has already lost so much, will lose what little remains and discover that its residual military strength amounts to little more than a Romans legio fantasma. At that point, the cost of "saving money" by not innovating will be so high that it will lead to bankruptcy.

I can understand your sentiment in the first two paragraphs, even though I think remote work was bound to fail for most of the companies simply because it is hard to update the culture. Broadcom mandated in-office work even during COVID as soon as the strictest lockdowns were lifted. And yet Broadcom stock is up 5x since 2022, so they are not missing out on anything by embracing the office. Same with Meta (mandated RTO, stock up 7x).

> the West, which has already lost so much, will lose what little remains

The West already advanced a lot until 2020 by working from office. If anything, fully remote conditions are a death knell for software jobs in the rich parts of the world. Most of the SW jobs do not require special talent and can be done for a fraction of the cost from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa or India.

The world is changing, yes, once upon a time, most innovation happened in person, because with the technology of the time, it was necessary to be there in person. But today's technology has made being there in person superfluous and inefficient. This means that some will continue remotely and they will be the ones who overtake those who have stuck to the old model.

The Bronze Age was characterised by bronze, which allowed for many advancements. But then we discovered iron, and those who chose it first massacred those who had remained with bronze. Bronze was no longer what had allowed for evolution; it had been surpassed.

This is my feeling and my point. These changes are obviously not that rapid; culture changes across generations, but they will happen, and those who are left bolted behind will not have the long and slow experimentation and refinement that allowed to master the new, and so they will simply be crushed. Software developed around the world matters little; quality software is so rare that only by working globally can we still create it. No single company, not even a single whole population, can truly do it on scale.

> But today's technology has made being there in person superfluous and inefficient.

Hard disagree. Lots of otherwise talented people still have problems with written communication or other norms of remote work. They thrive in an office though.

Mere proof of that is a lot of startups which are still flocking to SF and mandating in-person presence 5 (or 7) days a week so that they can move fast.

This. I am a manager, and frankly, getting a bit tired of people who just cast some degree of in person presence as “pure desire for control”. People require coordination (that’s partly why manager / project manager / product manager roles exist), and that coordination is orders of magnitude easier and faster in person. Sometimes just in the course of going from meeting A to meeting B, I will solve <=3 minutes stuff that would take me 2-3x the amount of time via chat or quick ad hoc meetings.

I am against full RTO 5 days a week, because for focused tasks, WFH is way more productive. But hybrid is not entirely stupid. Sure, if 100% of your work is focused work (say SWE work for instance), anything other than full WFH is a loss to you. But unless you work 100% alone with nobody else, 100% optimal for you may not be 100% optimal for the project / product / organisation. And I’ve seen first hand how conflicts brew when people can’t just go in front of a white board and hash out differences in person

Tl;dr : it’s wayyyyyyyy more nuanced than “RTO is stupid you control freak”