Remote Soccer

Imagine taking the team game of soccer and making it remote:

• Each player plays on a small VR mat in their home.
• The ball is tracked by cameras and sensors.
• Players wear VR headsets to play.
• Some haptic feedback simulates touching the ball.
• An audio system coordinates everything.
• Virtual stadium backgrounds provide the field environment.

You can probably think of many more examples, but this is how proponents of remote work sound to an inventor creating something new.

There’s an ongoing debate about the benefits of remote work, with one company praising it while another calls it a failure two days later. When you’re building a startup, you and your team are inventing something new. At the top levels of company buildings, you’re operating similarly to a professional sports team in how you coordinate and execute on your vision. Asking high-performing startup teams to invent remotely is just like asking FIFA to go remote.

Here’s my take:

If your team’s task has a predetermined output, remote work is effective because it’s essentially a bookkeeping job.

If your team’s task requires invention where the output is novel (sports, movies, music, startups, etc.), remote work will always be inferior to being in person.

Remote work scales. Remote invention fails.