Why do we have offices to begin with?  Because they provided value.  Past tense.  Sure they were always expensive, but without bringing people together physically, it was nearly impossible to accomplish anything.  Humans have a difficulty, rooted in the fundamental structure of our brains, to hold both the benefits and the costs of a situation in mind at the same time.  Once we determine that something provides greater benefit than cost, the costs just disappear.  It&#x27;s a pragmatic shortcut, but it falls flat when the underlying assumptions change.<p>The underlying assumptions have changed.  The myriad costs associated with offices are no longer outweighed by the benefits they provide.  That&#x27;s partially due to the development of technology, and partially due to other changes, such as the adoption of productivity-poisoning &#x27;open plan&#x27; offices.  Our whole setup of how we work is based on manufacturing, and it hasn&#x27;t been adapted to the very different work being done now.  Even though technology has made individual workers so productive that the company can survive an open plan office and still not be able to provide most workers with enough to do to fill 40 hours a week, we still force them to have their butt in a chair for those 40 hours - more often more than that, the majority of which is done solely for appearances sake.