One post tagged with "hybrid work"

The argument for an "office-first" culture is compelling on its face. It speaks to a romantic ideal of innovation: chance encounters, whiteboard epiphanies, and a shared mission forged over lunch. For a company building AI, this narrative feels intuitively correct. As a senior engineer who has worked in both colocated and globally distributed teams, I understand the appeal.

But intuition is not a strategy, and anecdotes are not data. When we examine the evidence and the unique constraints of an AI startup, a mandatory in-person policy looks like a self-imposed bottleneck. It limits access to the most critical resource—talent—and misunderstands how modern technical collaboration scales.