All this is so weird to me -- or, rather, it points out how weird my career has been.<p>I'm 53. I've worked at home since 2001, but it happened kinda accidentally. The dot-com-era software consultancy/internet studio I worked for in the late 90s cratered in the fall of 2001, so I hung out my shingle and went back to doing hands-on technical work. This was catch-as-catch-can for a while, but I kept the lights on -- and at no point did I consider renting an office to do it.<p>Then I joined a startup that didn't really take off, and we BRIEFLY had an office before realizing it was dumb and giving it up (so, like, 4-6 months?). We were traveling all the time anyway.<p>Then I went back to consulting and worked at home or on the road.<p>Then I joined my current employer, which has NEVER had an office anywhere, and as such had employees spread nationwide. We used to be cagey about it with customers (who are generally large traditional companies), but since COVID normalized WFH we've been much more open about it.<p>I miss very few things about an office. When I think about it, what I actually miss isn't the office, but the few moments in my early career where the office was also a place generally full of people whose company I enjoyed even external to the working relationship. That's an unusual thing, and (I bet) something you're more likely to experience in your 20s than your 50s.<p>I would like to see my boss more often. It's been a couple years now. I haven't seen our VP of SW in person in probably 10 years. But my home office comes with cats, a better coffee machine than any in-person office has, a kitchen I can cook lunch in, and a couch if I want to catch a short nap.