I read these and wonder what folks think about all the distributed teams in companies. Is the view that they are just generally less effective?
> I want to be able to quickly resolve any issues in person
I think this was more true for me when I was earlier in my career and remote tech really sucked. But now I see it as generally negative to have to sync with someone else to resolve an issue they (or I) am working on. In my experience, in-person bias is a symptom of a team that does not communicate well in writing (emails, Slacks, Jira, etc.).
> where someone can tap me on the shoulder when they need help leads to overall higher productivity
There is literally decades of published research that refutes this for knowledge work. IIRC the first studies were done in the 1950s or thereabouts, and I am not aware of any big studies that have come since that concluded differently. (IIRC Microsoft's campus was originally designed to give every engineer a solo office because Gates read _Peopleware.)
I will admit that working in interrupt-driven style does produce the feeling of getting more work done, whether or not that is actually true.
> I want to be able to quickly resolve any issues in person
I think this was more true for me when I was earlier in my career and remote tech really sucked. But now I see it as generally negative to have to sync with someone else to resolve an issue they (or I) am working on. In my experience, in-person bias is a symptom of a team that does not communicate well in writing (emails, Slacks, Jira, etc.).
> where someone can tap me on the shoulder when they need help leads to overall higher productivity
There is literally decades of published research that refutes this for knowledge work. IIRC the first studies were done in the 1950s or thereabouts, and I am not aware of any big studies that have come since that concluded differently. (IIRC Microsoft's campus was originally designed to give every engineer a solo office because Gates read _Peopleware.)
I will admit that working in interrupt-driven style does produce the feeling of getting more work done, whether or not that is actually true.