_mcdougle
I feel like, lately, there's been a big effort to keep these things going in spite of greener energy options being more and more affordable just so we don't put a lot of people out of work.
I don't think 100% either way is good.
I'm not that person. I would love to work 100% remote, where I can work in my own space without distractions. I'm actually way more productive when I get to work from home (at least with the more low-level tasks like actually coding) -- and from a more selfish perspective, I can slice up my day more efficiently and get my work done WHILE ALSO getting my own things done (exercising during lunch hour and using my own shower!)
But TBH I think the most effective option would be to provide an office and sort of let people come and go as they please, maybe with some incentive to get them into the office on average 2 days a week -- for all of the things others have mentioned here, like collaboration, small talk around the office, "hey can you look at this?", etc. etc. Those things are important, and even though I hate coming into the office, I've noticed lately that there have been a number of days when I was working from home and my team had a lot of pings going back and forth trying to figure things out, and I thought it would've been a lot easier to just pop into the office until the issues were resolved.
In many ways, I feel like "employment" is far too similar to high school, when it should be more like college -- define a task or project, set up periodic meetings to go over it (like class or lab in school), provide a place to work on it collectively (like a computer lab or library in school), but don't define where and how the work is to be done -- unless the worker can't figure it out himself and frequently fails to complete the task!
(and that, I think, is the root of the problem -- some people can't discipline themselves enough to do work on their own, so no one gets to....)