Would it? With email, Slack, phones and all? It's pretty easy to get an answer, often with more detail, links, code examples, asynchronously.

Face-to-face time is invaluable to me, but almost exclusively for brainstorming/working through difficult problems. But this can be a small minority of the week, and can happen opportunistically (when someone is available).

Good thing you don't work in a globally distributed company, nothing could get done.

Maybe you should look into technologies like email that allows people to send messages that can be responded to when the person has the time.

Adding a 12-hour round-trip to any question doesn't seem like a good alternative.

Isn't it a given that very few companies actually are hiring the top 0.01%? Unless you really need the absolute world best, you're probably going to do fine hiring local people who can work together closely.

I've found that adding {floor} round-trip to any questions someone could have figured out by reading the first result on a search to be excellent for the productivity of all involved.

Ok but that still leaves all the questions that can't be answered with the first result of a search.

Absolutely, I'm not saying that the best use of my time for my clients isn't asking me questions... sometimes. There's a set of stuff that I can answer in 2 minutes that might take someone an hour poring through code to figure out.

Working on the butt side of a globally distributed company, you realize how much more can get done when you actually visit the mother ship.

This ignores the concept of a blocking issue.

I (in North America) had to interact with a team member in Australia for a short project, and if either of us needed the other for something, we effectively had to find other work to do while waiting for the other to actually be awake and/or at their desk.

People I work with have trouble understanding my emails, and I have trouble understanding their emails. Together we make Linus look like a demi-god.

Communications tech is getting pretty good these days, so you can often be available to answer questions (during regular hours) without being at your desk.