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We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

mcsweeneys.net

51–60 of 73 posts

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#51
post #39

RTO is the worst shit managers try to push.

It's your position that remote work is an unvarnished success though? No notes? Personally, I feel that remote-only in 2026 is mainly a cost-savings scheme, and probably functions to make the ground much more fertile for replacing knowledge workers (us) with AI agents. In a physical space, humans have built-in advantages over bots. Operating exclusively or primarily over IP levels the playing field, nullifying our ad…

[deleted]

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#52
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there is soul in this that a soulless automaton cannot replicate. It is the difference between making something to be consumed and something to be felt. This is something to be felt.

Souls aren't real

Define soul.

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#55
post #39

RTO is the worst shit managers try to push.

It's your position that remote work is an unvarnished success though? No notes? Personally, I feel that remote-only in 2026 is mainly a cost-savings scheme, and probably functions to make the ground much more fertile for replacing knowledge workers (us) with AI agents. In a physical space, humans have built-in advantages over bots. Operating exclusively or primarily over IP levels the playing field, nullifying our ad…

I have to clock in and clock out. I can't clock in when I am commuting. I don't give over time savings to work tasks, Why would I. The time was my own time.

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is true, but I think within three years that will likely change.

Maybe! I think that within a year or two, either the sigmoid curve will flatten out or we will all die. But these beliefs are currently unfalsifiable. It will be interesting to see. (And I have a more weakly held belief that even if we do all die, Claude 3000 will still be thinking stuff like "Burning off Earth's atmosphere was the point that earns its keep." They just aren't optimizing these things to write legibly.…

It would be pretty cosmically funny if truly demigod-like ASI is still speaking pure Claudeslop.

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#58
post #48
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have a bit of an argument here, but I think there are two major problems. First, bullshitting in meatspace isn't much of an advantage. To the extent that it is, there is always video calling. What matters for agent training is going to be the output from said bullshitting. You're not really maintaining any moat by going to the office. And then on the other side, going to the office pretty much sucks. Unless…

> Unless you live close to the office, you're probably looking at least an hour on either side of your day commutting That's a choice though. I just lived where I worked. I can see the argument when you're talking about low-paid work, but if you are a software engineer, you can probably afford to not spend an hour commuting. > going to the office pretty much sucks. This is a highly personal thing though. For me, havi…

What general area did you live and work in? Was it actually Silicon Valley or a tech hub?

With remote work, you don’t have to work at home. Many simply work at a co-working space or similar environment that isn’t the actual office.

The colocated collaboration you’re talking about is also highly variable. It’s possible to be on a team where you’re working on projects that actually primarily involve others from other teams not in the same physical offices, or even the same company. So you’re describing benefits that are also highly personal, not a universal good. Software is an industry that would seem to have outgrown in-person communication.

Re: We Must Return to the Office to Use AI in Person

#60
post #48
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might have a bit of an argument here, but I think there are two major problems. First, bullshitting in meatspace isn't much of an advantage. To the extent that it is, there is always video calling. What matters for agent training is going to be the output from said bullshitting. You're not really maintaining any moat by going to the office. And then on the other side, going to the office pretty much sucks. Unless…

> Unless you live close to the office, you're probably looking at least an hour on either side of your day commutting That's a choice though. I just lived where I worked. I can see the argument when you're talking about low-paid work, but if you are a software engineer, you can probably afford to not spend an hour commuting. > going to the office pretty much sucks. This is a highly personal thing though. For me, havi…

While you can lower your commute by living closer to work, you should understand that what you’re doing is taking a drastic pay cut for the pleasure of in-office work.

In-office work might be worth it, maybe. Is it worth 20,000 dollars a year of your money? Probably not.

At that point, it’s probably still cheaper to rent a wework or something.

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