Thread by @JedKolko

A longish thread on the old death-of-distance argument, claiming that the Internet will let us do everything from anywhere so place doesn't matter.

Inspired by a twitter conversation last night among @AlecStapp
@AdamSinger @TaylorLorenz @TheStalwart

1/

Back at the dawn of the commercial Internet in the 1990s, people argued that the Internet would lead to the death of distance (or the death of cities).

It has not.

2/

Venture capital and specialized tech skills were -- and still are -- highly concentrated in tech hubs.

hiringlab.org/2019/04/18/tec…

3/

There's a bigger urban wage premium for tech jobs than for most other jobs. And tech salaries tend to be higher in tech hubs, even after accounting for the local cost of living.

hiringlab.org/2019/08/27/adj…

4/

Geographic inequality has increased, with the richest places pulling away from the rest.

5/

The Internet and other technology innovations made it easier and cheaper to communicate over long distances. So why does distance still matter and tech still cluster?

6/

My own early research found that the Internet allowed businesses to locate farther from suppliers and customers, but moved them closer to their specialized workforces.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

7/

The Internet appears to have substituted for phone and snail-mail communication, but not so much for face-to-face communication -- especially for in-person business services.

core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6…

8/

Some jobs can truly be done anywhere, and they're rarely found in expensive cities -- like call centers. But technical and scientific jobs cluster in pricey places.

hiringlab.org/2018/05/17/job…

9/

Tech and other jobs would probably be even more geographically concentrated, but the places where tech and other well-paid jobs cluster tend to build too little housing -- pushing jobs and people elsewhere.

10/

Regulation and topography constrain housing supply in many in-demand cities, preventing even greater geographic concentration. Housing costs are rising in constrained cities, pointing to tight supply, not weakened demand from the death of distance.

11/

What about remote work and telecommuting? It is on the rise but still rarer than most people imagine.

qz.com/work/1392302/m…

12/

Successful remote (or distributed) work depends not only on good technology but also on norms and etiquette. Remote workers are harder to supervise, and harder to include in informal interactions where ideas take shape and problems get solved.

13/

For many, remote work is a godsend -- letting people live where they want or need. But the ability to work remotely is often a negotiated outcome by workers with more bargaining power, like the highly educated.

qz.com/1015947/workin…

14/

Technology might make remote work more possible, but the growth of telecommuting could slow someday when the labor market is not as tight as it is today -- and workers have less bargaining power to work where they want.

15/

In short: the death of distance has been way overstated, both then and now. And some of the better evidence for the death of distance might be due not to technology but to other economic factors like constrained housing supply and the tight labor market.

16/end