This is why I don't believe in remote workers

That really has nothing to do with remote workers. It's just about brainstorming ideas.

I agree that it's difficult to match the creativity that comes from a face to face meeting. It's by no means impossible. Living outside Silicon Valley has forced me to learn how to generate that creativity over the internet. I do get a different kind of excitement when brainstorming face to face, but I have been forced to brainstorm my best ideas over the phone or on Skype.

It's always great to see people turn their (potentially quite narrow) personal experience into broad proclamations.

"I have never had a productive exchange via IRC, therefore it is not possible for anybody to do so!"

Meanwhile I have productive IRC, Skype and e-mail discussions all the time, both with colleagues at work and in the open source communities I participate in.

Some kinds of work are much easier in person, like brainstorming and high-level product design. Many other kinds of work--the ones that take up the bulk of the time in my experience--are best done alone. This includes most of the hashing-out-the-details stuff like coding, graphic design, and copy-writing.

The most important thing is finding people independent enough to function remotely. There some also work to be done in breaking down social boundaries--remote workers need to be willing to reach out immediately when they are stuck, have ideas, or need to talk something through. Many introverted people have trouble with this idea, especially at first.

Creativity comes from A) within, B) sharing with others. Nothing says it has to be in person, within the same physical room... heck, even if there was a requirement for eye-to-eye contact, webcams (et al.) provide that. The tools are there. If the creative spark is now catching on, the problem must be elsewhere: not the right people, or mix of people (or simply not the right time.. people are not necessarily brilliant 100% of the time throughout their entire life)

Different people communicate well in different ways. There's a tendency to think there's a right way to do these things. There isn't. You have to have a way for people to chat with each other informally that works for the real people on a real team, and a work environment and culture that encourage it. Whether that can be done remotely or not, or whether it actually works better remotely, depends on the specific people and the relational chemistry of the team.

To me this then boils down to: Are the people in my organisation the ones that are most likely to make me say 'Wow!' or would it be better if my water cooler conversations happen at the local coffeeshop / meetup.

And I've got to say as the founder of a very small firm, I know what people in my org are doing, but wow are there a lot of talented people doing amazing things in Seattle.

I work remotely and I'm in GotoMeeting all day. My other coworkers are on there too. All day. As far as I'm concerned, it feels like we're all working in the same office.

Email and chat? It doesn't have to be that way. I agree with Jobs that people have a natural desire to see and hear other people, and that that fosters creativity. You can still get that working remotely.

This to me doesn't disqualify working remotely. One can still engage with peers, it does take a bit more effort. A great example of this is simply attending Meetups. Most of the time, however, working involves sitting down by yourself and getting stuff done, even when implementing that great idea that just came to you from talking to someone else during your lunch break.

There are better ways of working remotely than email and chat. Always-on video screens and telepresence robots allow a good deal of spontaneity and bumping into people.

>Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions.

Does Creativity have to be a collaborative process?

probably true when we only had email and chat