I'm starting to think that the push for AI coding agents parity and RTO stem from the same place: mistaking a proxy measure (code, presence) for something that can't be measured (shared understanding).
To the extent that quantification is conflated with competency and control, the notion that a group of people silently staring into the distance might be a sign of a high-performing team must be terrifying.
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It also might be a sign of a completely disengaged team.
The difficulty is trying to determine which one it is.