Thanks for taking the time for this reply.
I was partly just taking the part of Devil's Advocate to at least represent the cons of remote working amid all the sunshine and rainbows of this post and the replies.
A key element of my comment (maybe not well communicated) was that remote work also includes people who are struggling at the living wage mark. When you create a thread on HN, the assumption is that everyone is making significantly greater than the regional median household income. People who are struggling may be living in a location with a single bedroom or studio and can't afford anything bigger. They may be living in a home in which the spouse is abusive or doesn't respect the need for a quiet place to work. If you're in the position of "any emergency is going to drown me" then there's no easy recovery from equipment issues.
As I mentioned before, if you're working for McDonald's, all you have to do is show up. Even showing up is a big obstacle for many (lack of transportation) and if the employer required much more than that, then they might not find any workers.
> 1. No but I can read Tim's blog post about the same subject.
The point of what you are replying to is that you learn things from working with others that you won't learn by following their online activity. I can't believe this would even be a point to argue. I learn things by being around co-workers in person. I would feel sad for anyone who wouldn't. I'm regularly floored by what co-workers can show me and I do the same for them. The "WTF, why didn't I know about this before?" moments from them casually showing me something which was never a big to them.
The same goes for speaking with the boss, management, or anyone else outside the people you are working right next to. The information flow is massive compared to the peephole you get with remote communication. People "say" things they don't even realize they're saying. They don't have to say ANYTHING and they're still telling you a lot. Maybe I just pick up this more than other people do?
Here's an idea. Try recreating the experience of "let's go out for a beer" with a co-worker online. You can't do it. You both have to be experiencing the same environment, seeing body language, reading emotion and all that is before you even get to the point of actually speaking.
Take all this away and we might as well be robots communicating because by removing these things you are removing what makes us human.
That said, remote communication still works. I did say that in my comment.