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I would love to see some empirical evidence surrounding these magically enlightening "water cooler" conversations that managers claim creates value out of thin air, because I am convinced it is just lip service from managers and capital holders to justify their existence


I don't know about empirical evidence but surely personal experience must lend some credence to this topic. It is far easier to just hit a whiteboard with a colleague (all virtual options for this are always a mess) and iterate quickly.

I wouldn't know how we would get empirical evidence but collaboration in the office is definitely valuable...I think the debate now is: is it worth all the downsides of commuting and colocating around high COL areas


"The plural of anecdote is not data" is a saying I feel like I've been using a lot the last few years.


Surely, definitely, and at the end no evidence.

It is also valuable to be at home in a quiet environment.


Knowing Amazon, the S-team absolutely used real data about productivity/cohesion/resilience for teams that spend more time in the office to make this decision, but they are absolutely not going to share it with anybody else.


They do seem to be more analytical and data-driven than most, as with their "WBR" methodology, so I would give them some benefit of doubt:

https://commoncog.com/goodharts-law-not-useful/#:~:text=Amaz...

(if you don't have a Chromium-based browser, scroll to the heading "How the WBR Accomplishes This").




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