> How about this: hire smart people you trust, give them whatever tools and support they need to do their jobs most productively, then get out of the way.
I don't understand -- if you could give some rational, reasoned argument or study that shows that smart people are very less productive on an average if they are working remotely instead of repeatedly chanting the link to a book whose reviews read "Bill Gates has built a company full of managers who read Peopleware" (that is supposed to be a plus?), your argument might make more sense.
Firstly I was pointing to the origin of "a door that shuts". It's not an example of micromanagement, it's an example of a finding from a study performed by IBM that programmers in private offices were more productive on any measure.
Secondly I was pointing out that the same book also tells managers to recruit bright people, give them goals, enable their work, and then go away.
I suspect Peopleware is the most widely not-actually-read book in this industry.