Not everything that appears in The Atlantic is total nonsense. Today I bring your attention to a discussion of the possible impacts of remote work on cities, commuting, and population density. The Covid pandemic has kickstarted this trend.
Metcalfe’s Law: The value of a communications network rises exponentially with the number of its users.In 2018, it was weird and rude to ask a boss to move a meeting to Skype, or to tell a business partner to fire up a Zoom link because you can’t make lunch. The teleconference tech existed, but it was considered an ersatz substitute for the normal course of business.“The most important outcome of the pandemic wasn’t that it taught you how to use Zoom, but rather that it forced everybody else to use Zoom,” Autor told me. "We all leapfrogged over the coordination problem at the exact same time.” Meetings, business lunches, work trips—all these things will still happen in the after world. But nobody will forget the lesson we were all just forced to learn: Telecommunications doesn’t have to be the perfect substitute for in-person meetings, as long as it’s mostly good enough. For the most part, remote work just works.
There will still be traditionalist bosses who demand you show up in the office every morning at 8 a.m. and work past 5 p.m. They will be viewed as outlier, hard-ass exceptions.
Lots of us are going to live where we choose, and often that will be low density living. I write this on a hilltop in rural northern CA where I have a 40 mile view and no close neighbors. These are interesting times.
