tl;dr: Allowing for randomness fosters creativity. The location, whether physical or digital, is what matters.
One of the observations I’ve seen about the downsides of remote work is the lack of “random” interactions.
You know, the kind that happen spontaneously in the bathroom or coffee break area. The so-called “water cooler” talk.
I hear that. There’s a lot of value to those types of interactions.
Creativity and Randomness
Back in 2010, I put up a post about Steven Johnson’s book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation.
The video that came along with it was, well, spectactular.
It still is.
The coffeehouses of London offered one type of environment. Today, we have others.
Digital Water Coolers
Being at home, for the most part, over the past few months has challenged all of us to adapt to new ways of living.
One of them, for me, was to look at the virtual communities of which I am a member as less of a “thing to catch up on” and more of a “water cooler” to stop by.
Take, for example, a few of the Telegram communities to which I belong.
Granted, these are all crypto-related (there are others that are not), but on any given day, I have a choice.
It’s kind of like a food court in a mall or airport (pre-corona).
- do I want to check in on blockchain + AI? Great, I’ll go to SingularityNet
- how is the most crypto friendly state in the US doing? Off to Wyoming.
- What about decentralized insurance industry? Nexus Mutual.
I used to think “oh, I need to catch up and read on everything in all of these groups.”
Now, I just say, “let me drop by the water cooler for a few minutes, see what people are doing, and listen.”
It is not the same as in-person. There’s an energy, but the ideas are out there.
For me, the shift comes when I think of them as an opportunity instead of a to-do.
