[echelon]

> The value of the valley has always been the hallway chat.

Is it, really? I always hear and read this, but I see very few anecdotes.

In thinking through my own interactions, I'm not sure anything that happened in the hallway, break room, or at lunch table actually contributed much more to the bottom line than conversations I've had over VC and Slack.

[xenophon]

Parts of the story may be apocryphal, but one of the most famous case studies of office design contributing to collaboration is the Pixar office. In the late 1990s (and to this day) the modal layout for larger companies was dividing teams into dedicated buildings by function withn a broader campus or office park.

Per the story, Jobs had the notion of designing an office that encouraged interactions between teams with broad open areas, communal social resources and bathroom placement in central atriums to encourage unplanned interactions between teams.

'Brad Bird, director of The Incredible and Ratatouille, said of the space, “The atrium initially might seem like a waste of space…But Steve realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen.” ' [1]

[1] https://officesnapshots.com/2012/07/16/pixar-headquarters-an...

[TheRealDunkirk]

> "Many offices are arranged in U-shaped units of 5-6 individual offices..."

And then they went back to private offices to get stuff done. Both are requirements to the formula for this success.

I've worked from home for about 6 years, but I still went into the office for the occasional meeting and white boarding /idea session. I don't think total remoteness will work very well. You have to have in-person interaction to collaborate effectively. It's just human nature. The delay of voice chat deteriorates the spontaneity of communication.

But going back to work to the all-open concept, where there are, effectively, no private/personal spaces, is also not the way forward. We need to get back to the old-fashioned idea of having offices for knowledge workers, and not just the VP's (who are never there any way).

[Cookingboy]

Depends on you role and where you are in the ladder.

In my experiences, all the big decisions are already made before scheduled meetings take place. Spontaneous one on ones, hall way chats, coffee walks, etc are where those discussions are made, and very often meetings are just an official "let's get everyone on the same page for the record" exercise.

[bduerst]

At bigger companies it's almost needed. Harder to desk stalk someone who has been dodging you when they're remote.

[malwrar]

I find the same is true for me too. It's much easier to talk about the idea over Slack rather than during some random encounter that is probably the product of either or both parties heading to a meeting somewhere. With Slack, you even get the bonus of having time to think out the exact words you want to use to convey your thought, rather than rush through a simple and undeveloped initial response to some idea.

[urda]

If you're not networking you're not moving ahead.