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Comment by sanderjd | Hacker News Reader

> In the future, going into virtual reality will be where you go to interact with others, and you'll take the goggles off to isolate yourself.

This sounds deeply shitty.

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With that framing, I agree. However, I don’t think it needs to be. I’m hoping it’s more that virtual reality is where to go to interact professionally and you’ll take off the goggles for your personal time.

If, instead of needing to live in close proximity to work opportunities, often in an expensive and crowded city with a long commute, people could live wherever they want and commute virtually, that would be a huge positive in my book. That is already possible for some professions, such as software development. But good VR/AR will open the door to other professions that still require in person collaboration today and will improve those that are already remote capable. Then, at the end of the day, you take off your headset and live your life wherever/however you choose.

Yeah I agree that work is by far the most optimistic use case here. Still though, I work remotely, and it kinda sucks, for exactly this same reason. It is certainly a huge advantage to be able to live anywhere and not be tied to any specific location to get work done, but there are huge disadvantages too. I haven't personally figured out what I think the right way to square the circle is, but I think it might be more like the trend toward 2-3 hybrid work weeks rather than total isolated remote. At least for most people.

We're already texting far more often than talking, in person or on the phone. Perhaps you're used to that and don't feel strange, but I bet there are people who consider that shitty.

Yes, that is also strange and shitty. (But actually no, I talk in person a lot more than I text. I have to make an effort to see people that way, but I think it's worth the effort.)

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