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Re:Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office? by The_Colonel on Sunday February 05, 2023 @02:32PM (#34668208)
> If you can connect or collaborate in a hallway, you can also do so in a Discord channel (or whatever tool).

I don't believe that, those are very different mode of communications.

> There are also several good applications for internet collaboration that simulate a rich shared 2d or 3d or video space.

I think, this could potentially help, but we seem to be still very far from it technologically. It's still impossible to achieve realistic eye contact. Audio in calls is still tragically bad - it's actually somewhat shocking that nobody was able to figure this out yet.

> Networking, mentorship, company culture, etc. can all happen over the internet.

Might work in theory, but in my experience not in practice. My company tried to organize some socializing remotely, but the attendance was dramatically lower than in the in person events.

Re:Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office? by kelnos on Sunday February 05, 2023 @03:15PM (#34668787)
> > If you can connect or collaborate in a hallway, you can also do so in a Discord channel (or whatever tool).

> I don't believe that, those are very different modes of communications.

So what? Just because something is different, it doesn't mean you can't get useful benefits from it.

No, you're not going to have a random hallway meeting and conversation on on a chat platform. But the barrier to just saying hello to someone or asking them a question drops to near-zero when you have those chat platforms. Yes, it does mean you need to be more deliberate about making interactions happen, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that.

The "remote renaissance" is still very new. (And it started during a time that was not ideal for methodically exploring and learning a new paradigm.) It'll take many more years before people adjust and really find out how communication works best.

Re:Ask HN: Employers, why do you want us back in the office? by robertlagrant on Sunday February 05, 2023 @03:23PM (#34668889)
> So what? Just because something is different, it doesn't mean you can't get useful benefits from it.

You've missed the point. It's wasn't that there are no benefits from it. It's that there are specific benefits from conversations that won't happen on a wiki.

This is a great example of how people can miss the point if you don't go round the houses with conversation and say something in multiple ways, so they can't misunderstand.