Is anyone in this sub or instance a remote worker? I have been one first partially and then completely for a few years now and I began to think as a kinda of solarpunk way of live that has the potential to propel humanity to a more decentralized and sustainable way of life, specially since I plan to move to a smaller town because of it. What do guys feel about it? Do you do it? Don’t do it but would like to? Do it it but miss interaction?
I’ll counter that with the community being the people you want it to be and not the forced work place culture. You can have the same community for years while changing jobs in the meantime. I don’t understand your argument regarding cars. Fully remote allows one to orchestrate his own live to never have to drive. If you have no commute and you have access to things near you, why would you drive? I understand that it depends on the person and live conditions. But from strictly flexibility perspective you are more able to decide how you live than the alternative.
I think much of it comes from the fact that many assume that “commute == driving”. I gave up my car 20 years ago and quite happily commuted to an office for most of that time either by transit or by bike. This is something you can do in places that are close together like cities. Remote work on the other hand allows people to live further away from each other, which tends to work against efforts around transit and cycling. In the end, you may not drive to work anymore, but you typically still need a car to do anything else. This to me is a bad model to reach for.
I think that’s a bit of leap to say that because people can live further away from everyone else they will. And will go to places where everything must be done by car. I think most will just stay away from the bigger city centers, which tend to be the only places where transit has enough coverage. At least as far as I’m used to, don’t know about the UK, maybe you have great transit systems. I can say something about everybody I know who works remotely (partially and completely), at the end of the day most are much more likely to want to be with friends and family and exercise, mostly because they don’t feel so drained by travel and work culture.