Friction and velocity is what’s important.<p>For executive teams, in-person interactions cut down friction, and result in an order of magnitude higher velocity. Every bit of friction adds up, scheduling a Zoom meeting or waiting on 5 people to reply to an email is way slower than a 17 second walk down the hall to get a thumbs up from those same 5 people.<p>But for developers or anyone doing deep work, their friction is interruptions, and if they’re interrupted every 30 minutes, they never reach a high velocity. Or if you have a headache, taking a nap might actually be the fastest path to building something complex.<p>Then there’s the majority of workers, who aren’t interested in “working like hell”. There’s a limited supply of ambitious, talented people, and you need this group.<p>I sometimes wonder if that’s the whole reason some startups get acquired, just because you’re getting employees who are ambitious.