I’ve written 36 principles with conviction. I believe in them.
But conviction isn’t certainty.
The loneliness tax
We build connection infrastructure. Social channels. Virtual coffees. Annual offsites.
It helps. It doesn’t replace what it’s replacing.
Some people fade in remote environments. Not from lack of performance but from lack of presence. They need to be around people. No amount of Zoom or Slack or carefully designed rituals fully substitutes.
Some loneliness is structural. The cost of choosing a way of working most of society isn’t built for.
We’ve mitigated it. We haven’t solved it.
The junior problem
Learning by osmosis is real. Watching how senior people navigate conflict, handle ambiguity, make decisions. That happens in offices almost automatically.
In remote teams, it only happens if you build elaborate systems for it. Most companies don’t.
Remote assumes you already know how to work. We select for people trained elsewhere and externalize the development cost to companies that still have offices.
Remote isn’t a replacement for traditional work. It’s a layer that sits on top of it.
These aren’t objections to the system. They’re tensions within it.
I haven’t resolved them. If someone tells you they have, they’re selling something.