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This is a segment from The Breakdown newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. “We know more than we can tell.” — Michael Polanyi on the importance of IRL collaboration Hewlett and Packard; Jobs and Woz; Gates and Allen; Page and Brin; Bezos and (the now-forgotten) Kaphan. The history of technology in America is a history of two people incubating whole new industries from a garage. Would any of Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Microsoft, Google or Amazon have been incubated over Zoom? We’ll never know, but empirical evidence suggests not. Even in this age of video conferencing, face-to-face interaction remains a key ingredient in the alchemy of innovation.  One study found, for example, that adding non-stop flights between two locations resulted in a statistically significant increase in research citations and collaborative patents between said locations. Another study, published in Nature, offers an explanation as to why getting off the sofa and onto a flight might be worth it: “Videoconferencing hampers idea generation because it focuses communicators on a screen, which prompts a narrower cognitive focus.” (As someone who happily works from a sofa, I report that result only reluctantly.) Researchers have even used GPS data from Silicon Valley to quantify the effect of chance encounters on innovation, finding “substantial returns to face-to-face meetings.”  It’s easy to imagine why this might be the case.  To cite just one pitfall with remote work, 25% of the emojis we send are misinterpreted by the recipient, often in the opposite way they were intended. How long would Steve Wozniak have put up with Steve Jobs if any portion of their communication happened by text message? Not long, I’m guessing. Businesses seem to get this — it’s presumably why they spent an estimated $1.4 trillion flying employees around for IRL meetings last year. Businesses don’t spend that kind of…

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Filed under: News - @ June 24, 2025 10:28 pm