This is a good thing. Prior to this, we were all lemmings that were told to come into the office, to sit at a desk in front of our laptop or monitor, and type away at a keyboard.
The 2 hour daily round trip commute would wear us down. It would increase pollution and oil consumption. It would congest traffic, and city transportation services could not add enough roads, buses, trains, and subways fast enough to handle the load.
And it would get everyone sick, as everyone always caught a variant of the seasonal flu.
Now, we can all work safely from home. Just Zoom In and instant virtual meeting. Daily stand ups are a breeze. No need to schedule a small conference room that might be in overbooked availability.
It separates those that creates tools and products for business, vs those that consumes such tools to build further analytical results.
The greatest thing for me, is that I have not gotten sick in over a year. No flu. No cold. No sniffles. Incredible. Even if I worked late into the night, and on some days, I had little sleep, I still didn’t get sick. This proves to me, that the greatest vector of disease transmission is in the office. And probably the open office concept, that forced everyone into the same pig pen, and got everyone sick together.
America has enough land mass to handle the 350 million people that we have. It’s better to spread out. Instead of cramming us all in to small cities.
Perhaps hot cities like Phoenix or Houston or Austin can finally bloom, because of this pandemic. They can work remotely during the daytime, in their nice air conditioned homes. And then at night, they can go out and socialize in the city with their friends and families, or make new friends.
We can imagine a newer and better reality for all. We just need the courage and will to do it. Or maybe, we just needed a little push from a little virus to make us think a different way.