Momentum and Imagination

I opened my news app this morning to see that Goldman Sachs wants its people back in the office next month. The story quotes the Goldman CEO, David Solomon, as saying remote work for them is “an aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible.”* I appreciate that remote work is not for everyone. But we are in a moment where we can consider and explore alternatives to structures that were conceived of and calcified in the previous centuries. Do we really want to rush back to those structures without thoughtful reflection? Sure large, powerful enterprises with bottom lines foremost in mind are going to be extremely cautious about any sort of change. It likely doesn’t make sense to their risk analysis. But on a larger societal level, taking stock of the whole landscape and asking some hard questions and imagining alternative possibilities seems like a healthy exercise. On an individual level it’s all too easy to fall prey to routine without reexamining choices and intentionally cultivating a life that is not ruled by only a small set of metrics that we take for granted as “the good.” Are those really good? And for whom are they good. Those aren’t easy questions, personally, and all the more when writ large. But it doesn’t mean they are any less necessary for us to carefully engage.