Act locally, work remotely

sounds contradictory

A reader writes,

I realized you posted about civic engagement and work from home in a way that I thought was in tension.

You say, “ I believe that you are more likely to help your community by connecting to people in person than by doing something on line. But I may just be showing my age.” And also, “ I think that WFH is a huge increase in well-being, regardless of what the GDP factory is reporting. Whatever the drawbacks are, business executives should be trying to overcome them, rather than go back to the bad old days. If you need to get employees together, do so at short offsite retreats.”

While I agree with there is wisdom in both statements, I see them in serious tension. Why should remote work work well but remote organizing work badly? Why should the problems of remote working be more easily fixed than those of remote organizing?

My problem with remote organizing is that it typically means “activism.” I recently read an article (which a commenter reminded me is a book review by one of Scott Alexander's readers) arguing that Ralph Nader is more or less the root of much evil. Nader came up with “activism,” which nowadays means that a small group of noisy people gets their way, thwarting both progress and democracy. Generations of young people going to law school have all wanted to be the next Ralph Nader—and make big money doing it. (Nader himself was quite ascetic. In the early 70’s, he lived in a rooming house where his communication outlet was a pay phone in the hall.)

I am not a fan of the desire to do good. I call it the intention heuristic. I think that, on average, profit-seeking businesses do good, and non-profits do harm. But if you insist on doing non-profit work, I think that working for a hands-on charity is less likely to cause harm than working for a cause.

Being an online activist is bad. The fact that you are remote is only a small part of it. The main thing is that you are arrogant and not accountable.

In business, I am still a fan of remote work. I am also a fan of getting to know your colleagues in person, but I think that can be done at occasional retreats, rather than requiring daily commutes.

If as a manager you complain that you have a hard time getting hold of someone at home, consider that in an office environment it is often hard to get hold of someone because they are in a meeting. Communication in a large organization is never perfect. The question is whether you can use norms and tools to make communication work just about as well with remote work as in a cube farm.