No evidence that chance meetings in office boosts innovation
This article is heavy on quotes but very light on actual data. This is a trend that I see in media (mainstream and otherwise), where they take something that is by nature very difficult to study, find some researchers or limited studies that fit their narrative, and then report it as gospel. It's really not that hard as a reporter to essentially start with the conclusion you want to end with and then to back into that with cherry picking supporting research.<p>And I <i>really</i> take issue with the racial angle that feels like it is basically part of every single NYT article these days. A lot of the issues reported here feel valid, but just zooming back out (maybe pun intended?) for a second, this reporter seems to be arguing that actual face-to-face interactions are so fraught with racism that minorities need to be "protected" by remote work to be on equal footing. If that <i>is</i> the case then we should address the root cause, not put everyone in their home office "safe space".<p>And to clarify, I'm not even commenting on the pros/cons of in-person interactions. I'm just commenting on yet another media piece that cherry picks some research and quotes to make their own opinion sound like it has more backing than it actually does.