I understand your point, and I have experienced that on occasion, maybe once or twice a year. However that also requires that people have slack time available t

I understand your point, and I have experienced that on occasion, maybe once or twice a year. However that also requires that people have slack time available to kick things around in conversation. I've had equal or better success following paths on my own that while being highly tangential/unrelated to my work ultimately provided valuable and relevant insights. I guess my point is that valuable spontaneous connections require time but they don't require in-person interpersonal interactions.