Again - yeah sure, there are communication benefits to general proximity. But the idea that this literally happens "at the water cooler" (or from bumping into

Again - yeah sure, there are communication benefits to general proximity. But the idea that this literally happens "at the water cooler" (or from bumping into each other in the hallway) to a significant degree -- such that it's worth dragging people into their cars for a 90 commute each way, on top of the obvious productivity-killing effects of the vast majority of office spaces, these days, just to benefit from these wonderful and sublime interactions -- is just nonsense. Or like another commenter put it: one of these things people hear and like to repeat, without checking whether it has any grounding in reality.