No they really can't. The number of random discussion that lead into whiteboard interesting solution to problems we run into infrequent or about the overall direction of our product have dropped to near 0 since I've been working remote.

Work has gotten easier in this remote world as it turned my whole team into input / output engines with very little thought along the way but god it's sucked all the creativity out of our work and removed most of the critical review of any product decision.

I've experienced this too; sure, work is getting done, but it's so difficult to be creative in a way that gets people excited and thinking about problems and their solutions to make our (and our user's) lives better.

Coming up with projects that are impactful and novel is a large part of our jobs, and creative velocity has nose-dived since everyone went remote. There's just (to me) no substitute for hallway chat, overhearing people arguing and getting involved, or coming across an interesting white boarding conversation. One person at a time talking on a scheduled webex is just not at all the same.

This discovery issue is why I advocate for room based, not call based communication (Dicord channels are surprisingly great, Mumble would probably do too). It certainly doesn't solve all of the problems, but I find it can alleviate them a bit.

At my previous gig (all remote, a startup) we had plenty of creative and productive random discussions. They'd start on slack and then progress to zoom.

So it's possible, but it certainly _felt_ different than the random discussions I'd had at in-person companies.

I can't quite put my finger on it, though. With the remote startup, there was no choice...?

Ahhh, I don't know. I'm a strong hybrid WFH advocate, but I've been embedded in operational areas, not centralized IT, for most of my career. And hearing conversations, walking past a meeting and catching a snippet of a problem I can solve for them, having rando non-IT staff knock on my door on the way to the bathroom... all of those experiences have contributed to some of the more impactful things I've produced over the years.

It's hard to have random conversations WFH when they're usually prefaced on running into someone in the hallway or saying a quick "hello" as you walk past their cubicle/office/whatever.