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The NYC IS NEVER COMING BACK article is ridiculous for a number of reasons (it being published by a “founder” on LinkedIn should have been your first tip off). Let’s talk about them. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nyc-dead-forever-heres-why-james-altucher
The thesis is that bandwidth is a game changer, and that it means that we’ll never be in offices again and that this is The New Normal. According to James, that trickles down to all aspects of live in NYC. That thesis is wrong.
First off, the office is more than just a place to work. It’s a place where people get together and knowledge is shared informally as well. Having institutional knowledge is huge in getting orgs to function well, and it gets distributed super poorly when people are at home.
We aren’t casually talking to our coworkers anymore, and it leaves us all atomized. This is great if you think employees are replaceable parts in your machine, but they aren’t. Discussions in the lunch room lead to ideas that make organizations better. Everyone benefits.
Organizations that have pivoted well to working from home will tell you about all the issues they’ve had and are still having. Anyone who says their office works just as well from home is either lying to you or was part of an office that was disfunctional to begin with
The way that you know that this isn’t the new normal is that everyone is fucking miserable all the time now. We’re desperate for things to go back. We watch comedy shows on Zoom now because we have to, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a bad substitute for the real thing.
This article was written by someone who has completely mistaken the short term for the long term, and the proof of that is that he decided to move from NYC to Miami, a city that will be underwater in 20 years.
