I think a lot of techies would be surprised with how much some users embrace their products. We see and know the man behind the curtain, other people believe in the magic.

Idk how popular it is but I know at least one person that does that. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets more normal in the coming years.

You bet I do. That's an hour of rubber-ducky time working through new architectures with someone who won't get tired of my endless blathering. I've worked through a bunch of bad ideas that way, without embarrassing myself in front of my colleagues.

I also use it to explore topics that I wouldn't spend desktop time on, but that I was curious about. It's like having a buddy who's smarter than me on their special interest, but their special interest is "everything you don't know.". And your buddy's name is Gell-Mann. : - )

It beats passively listening to the radio.

..this is the saddest thing I’ve read in a while if true. Whiteboard sessions with coworkers designing architectures and playing out/bouncing ideas is one of my favorite things to do at work.

Just don’t invite the folks with unearned arrogance.

Interesting discussion, thanks everyone for the insights.