[NotGMan]

>> But there was a pivotal moment for me when we had our first post-quarantine, in-person group gathering. Within 45 minutes I came away from three separate conversations with spontaneous to do’s and ideas to put in motion, something that hadn’t happened during the past few years of video meetings.

This is the only reason to work in an office: in person brainstorming is much better. Virtual brainstorming doesn't seem to cut it (or we at least haven't figured it out yet).

Something spontaneous about it that is hard to replicate via predetermined remote calls.

[ghthor]

No reason remote work can’t be spontaneous, even easier IMO because you don’t have to herd cats into the same space. A ping on chat and within 1 min multiple people can be in the discussion without even having to move.

[basisword]

>> A ping on chat and within 1 min multiple people can be in the discussion without even having to move.

Have you ever tried this? Half of them won’t reply to you for the next x hours, others will have meetings, and others will say not right now I’m swamped. Most of those excuses are because they can’t be bothered joining a “quick call” with you, not because they’re actually busy.

[hellisothers]

100% opposite experience here, but you know the saying, if one person won’t accept your invite it’s probably them, if nobody will accept your invites…

[imetatroll]

But if they had meetings in the office they wouldn't be participating anyway so that isn't relevant.

I guess it is a difference in employees but I've never had people reject a huddle outright. They might need a bit of time but it always happens.

[jitl]

What they mean by spontaneous is things happing by chance. You pinging someone isn’t happening by chance, you’re choosing to do that - to make contact.

Compare to a physical office, where by chance you’re in the cafe at the same time as someone else who you usually don’t think about. But somehow you start talking and a good idea comes from it.

I’m remote and have no problem pinging anyone on slack from my teammate to the CEO — but when I visit the office I always find connections & ideas I would never find sitting at home.

[ghthor]

You can also just start talking in chat, even in group channels; doesn’t have to be DMs. And the you’ll have a log of your good ideas. And likely someone random will jump into your discussion.

[jitl]

There's a difference between the random chance dynamic I'm talking about, and sending a message to a slack channel.

[michaelt]

Maybe?

Personally I've never used a virtual whiteboard that was any good. I blame the much smaller area and the mouse input.

Of course if your ways of working mean you can collaborate without any need for whiteboards, I guess things could be fine. Clearly, things like the Linux kernel get along OK without such collaboration.

[ghthor]

You’ll probably want to translate your great idea to a digital diagram at some point for the design doc or documentation. Might as well start there, then you have less work to do later.

[seb1204]

Are In person dev conferences (again) still a thing? Meeting in person once for an intensive time can go a long way in the following remote work time.

[LoganDark]

There's still benefits to having real bodies in the same physical space, a closer analogue would be closer to a video call. But that's far less spontaneous.