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Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

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Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#111

Post by AnthonyMouse »

JohnFen wrote: post #73
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why nature invented subletting. Getting 80% of what you're paying for space you don't need is much better than getting 0%. Then you get to claim a big cost reduction this year and a big cost reduction when the lease expires and you can dump the unneeded space entirely.

They investigated this, but it was impossible to find anyone who wanted the space. Everyone was working at home. Nobody needed office space.

There are no bad products, only bad prices. Subletting for 30% of what you're paying is more than 0% too.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#112

Post by blacksmith_tb »

gumballindie wrote: post #77
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but shouldn't we expect to see some 100% remote businesses eat the lunch of the old dinosaurs in their highrises? I would think that would be the best proof.

Linux is doing rather well. Not a business but the people building it have eaten's microsft's server market pretty well. That's what happens when you let engineers do their jobs.

Hmm, yes, mainly remote (Red Hat notwithstanding), but no, not a business, so I am not sure it's quite clear-cut enough to use as proof...

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#113

Post by justrealist »

JohnFen wrote: post #11

> Altman also spoke about the future of AI. According to Altman, AI needs to be treated with “extreme seriousness” as the tech might have “existential risk” attached to it. I really, really wish that OpenAI would start behaving as if they believed this.

They have a philosophy which may be wrong but is not entirely incoherent (expose risk as capacity becomes available, so we aren't caught off-guard by high-capacity risks we can't recover from).

And let's be honest, GPT-4 is vastly better aligned than any of the other LLMs. Not a super high bar, but it's a bar.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#114

Post by tomhoward »

nerdix wrote: post #99
dragonwriter wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypocrisy from the guy who is both publicly an AI doomer with a stocked AI apocalypse retreat and an AI firm CEO promoting his product as either near or actually being AGI? Who would expect that ?

Is he really a doomer because he fears AI? Sounds like Mike Judge needs to bring Silicon Valley back because reality has jumped the shark and made the original series seem mundane in retrospect. He needs to up the ante.

Given what we've seen of Altman's success [1], what's more likely: that he believes something so nonsensical, or that this article is badly written and the GP comment inaccurate?

[1] To be clear, I have doubts about just how far LLM's can continue to improve and how much they will really transform the world; but the influence of OpenAI so far is plain for all to see.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#115

Post by raydev »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #50
_s wrote: post #21

I assume he’s got either direct or indirect links to commercial realestate; as an owner or investor or something else. It makes literally 0 business sense to be forking out anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand per employee per month to give them a space to work, when that can just be avoided. The amount of cost and overheads involved; from insurance to upkeep to rent to OHS - a work space is probably the nex…

I agree, but shouldn't we expect to see some 100% remote businesses eat the lunch of the old dinosaurs in their highrises? I would think that would be the best proof.

Why would you expect that as an outcome now? The old dinosaurs have the market locked down for at least a few more years.

Every massive tech company that reigns today was built at least a decade ago.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#116

Post by korginator »

Quite the opposite. Several divisions in my organisation and others in our group have decided to gradually move to a model where about half of us work from home for the medium term, and that number is expected to increase over the next five years.

They are already saving a significant amount of money by giving up our old offices. The mode of engagement between staff and across teams has obviously changed and continues to do so, but productivity is back to pre-Covid levels. We meet in person when there's a real need, say once a week or two.

Even allowing for the possibility that the contents of the article are true (which I seriously doubt ... it reads like sloppy reporting and cheap sensationalism) this is one man's view, biased and coloured by his own interests.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#117

Post by Gigachad »

pdonis wrote: post #12

When you actually look at the claim Altman can defend from his own experience, it's not that remote work doesn't work for "the tech industry"; it's that remote work doesn't work for early stage startups . But most of "the tech industry" is not early stage startups. Most of the people working in the tech industry could still be working remotely, while at the same time the small fraction of them that are working at ear…

Yeah, if you are just pumping out generic jira ticket work which doesn't require interaction with anyone else, of course remote works well. If you are actually trying to move fast, throw ideas around, and collaborate, nothing beats being in the same room.

Video calls are a poor replacement to real life interactions. Otherwise the air travel industry would have been crippled by now.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#119

Post by makingstuffs »

Autonomous working has proven to be a game changer for myself and others in my team.

I can login and out when I need to (meetings/stand ups I obviously need to factor in) which allows me to take an actual break and go somewhere with my dog when I am feeling bogged down/unproductive.

The ability to do this means that, when I return to the desk, I am refreshed and ready to tackle a problem with fresh eyes instead of glazed over and looking at a clock anxiously waiting for my time to jump on a train and commute to my home.

This rhetoric that remote work is bad for business seems to always come from people whom I suspect have an ulterior motive — usually people with investments in real estate and retail businesses which are taking a hit from the lack of lunchtime and rush hour footfall.

My manager once said to me “I hired an adult, so I don’t need to hold your hand” and this has resonated with me since. If you cannot trust your staff to do what is best for you then that is your problem for hiring the wrong people. It isn’t the problem of an entire industry.

Re: Sam Altman says era of remote work is over

#120

Post by throwaway02sfv »

If every organization feels like for improving org outcomes bringing workers to the office is absolutely crucial, then that org should bear the cost as well. The org should pay for gases, pay for time in commute, pay for car and cover it's insurance. For people who moved to colocate with the org, org should pay for their rents too. After all, it's the orgs decision to call workers for it's own profits, why should a worker be paying for this unnecessary expenses when the alternative of remote is very much feasible.

Allowing workers to work remotely or in-office is the choice of the organisation. Since, it's a choice... It should come with a price tag associated with it.

Alternatively, of govt as well feel that workers are needed back in the office, all of the above expenses should be allowed to claim back during taxation.

My simple question is how fair is it for workers to pay for the luxury choices made by their respective employers?

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