I agree. The core tools that allow full remote teams to even function can make a remote team more productive than the average team. Things like: documenting eve

I agree. The core tools that allow full remote teams to even function can make a remote team more productive than the average team. Things like: documenting everything religiously, ditching physical location-specific security VPNs, recording everything, letting employees observe every meeting, cloud tools, etc. For centralized teams, it's difficult to get to this point because it requires willpower and discipline to not take the "easy way out" and just talk about it in-person. Remote teams have an advantage here because there is no easy way out. But, that comes with obvious drawbacks; it's not easy. You're right that the worst case scenario is "semi-remote", even if that just means two centralized offices trying to collaborate. One of the ideas I am warming up to is centralizing (say 75% of) hiring around specific cities, and paying for specific coworking space membership in those cities. You can remain a remote company, but employees have the freedom to organize days when they want to work together in those pre-selected locations.