For a long time I made the remote-work argument earnestly: the internet is flat, the tools are the same everywhere, talent is evenly distributed. I still believe most of that. What I underestimated was density — not of jobs or capital, but of casual conversation. In Indiana, an ambitious idea was something I had to defend. In San Francisco, it is the baseline assumption of the person sitting next to me.
The move itself was unremarkable and the adjustment was not. Everything is expensive, everyone is working on something, and the pace resets what you consider a normal week. I miss the quiet more than I expected to. But the compounding is real: conversations here turn into collaborations at a rate I never experienced anywhere else, and that has changed what I think is possible for me.