Personal technology and digital connectivity had advanced so far that people had begun to ask, “Do we really need to be together, in an office of knowledge-work organizations, to do our work?” We got our answer during the pandemic (流行病) lockdowns. We learned that a great many of us don’t in fact need to be collocated with colleagues on-site to do our jobs. So now we face new questions: Are all-remote or majority-remote organizations the future of knowledge work? Is work from anywhere (WFA) here to stay?

To better understand how leaders can capture the upside of WFA while overcoming the challenges and avoiding negative outcomes, I’ve studied several companies that have accepted remote models. One striking finding is how greatly workers benefit from these arrangements. Remote work really makes a difference.

The office—with its meeting rooms and informal interactions—has been a way of life for so long that it’s hard to imagine getting rid of it. However, the Covid-19 all-remote experiment has taught many knowledge-work organizations and their employees that with time and attention, these concerns can be addressed.

Knowledge sharing is a major challenge. Distributed colleagues cannot hit one another on the shoulder to ask questions or get help. At GitLab all team members have access to a “working handbook”. It currently consists of 5000 searchable pages. All employees are encouraged to add to it and taught how to create a new topic page, edit an existing one, a video and so forth.

Of course, WFA may not be possible at this time for some organizations, such as manufacturing companies—though that could change with advances in 3D printing and other technologies. However, with the right strategy and technologies, many other companies and teams could go completely or mostly remote. The question is not whether work from anywhere is possible but what is needed to make it possible. The short answer: management.

Max Vernon Mathews has been called the father of computer music. He created electronic tools so that people could use computers as musical instruments. He had a huge influence on the development of electronic music and how it is written, recorded and played.

In 1957, Max Mathews wrote the first computer program that enabled a computer to create sound and play it back. At the time, he was working as an engineer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. His computer program was called Music. It enabled a large IBM computer to play a seventeen-second piece of music that he had written.

The computer was so slow that it would have taken an hour to play the piece of music in seventeen seconds. For that reason, Mathews moved the work to a tape player, which could be sped up to play the music at a normal speed. He later said that the sound quality of the musical notes was not great, but the technical importance of the music was huge.

The science fiction writer Arthur C.Clarke visited Bell Laboratories in the 1960s. He heard a computer “sing” the song “Daisy Bell” on devices and programs developed by Max Mathews and other engineers. Clarke noted this technology in his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was later made into a movie.

Mathews continued creating other versions of the Music program. He became interested in how computers could help musicians outside recording studios. The Groove program he developed was the first computer program made for live performances. He also developed an electronic device he called the Radio Baton. The device looks like two drum sticks. It enables the user to control the speed and sound levels of orchestral music played on a computer. The user does this by moving the two sticks on a special electronic surface.

Max Mathews believed modern musicians are not making full use of the power of computer music. He said a violin always sounds like a violin. But with a computer, the way a violin sounds is unlimited. He said he did not want computer sounds to replace live music. But he said he hoped laptop computers would one day be considered serious instruments.

We've heard of AI (Artificial Intelligence) taking human jobs, but I bet mayors (市长) don't really think their jobs can be threatened any time soon. They were wrong, and the AI running for the mayor of a Tokyo district was clear proof of that.

AI can't legally run for high-ranking public management positions yet, but one mayoral candidate from Tama City, Tokyo, intended to maximize the use of artificial intelligence in running city affairs. He was running his campaign (竞选运动) as “AI Mayor”. Basically, he was suggesting replacing human public officials with AI and having them collect city data and create fair and balanced policies that will benefit everyone.

“For the first time in the world, AI will run in an election,” human candidate Michihito Matsuda announced on Twitter. “Artificial Intelligence will change Tama City. With the birth of an AI Mayor, we will conduct balanced politics.”

The AI Mayor was campaigning like its human competitors. Posters were shown all over Tama City and campaign trucks were blaring out promises of an AI utopia (乌托邦) and asking for support.

Some people called Michihito Matsuda's campaign a stun (噱头): as a human would still be the one legally in charge. However, others said that they were excited about the future of AI running things in the background, adding that it had to be a better choice.