Article headline today (a recurring theme).
The media wants to make a huge deal about how going to work in an office is suddenly becoming passé — the media being mostly centered in New York City, I might add, which also happens to be the largest commercial real estate market in the U.S. But like many things the media gets wrong (or gets late), this trend has been going on for years. Especially for knowledge workers and those who work in the tech industry. They may try to pin it on “upstarts” like Airbnb and its cheeky CEO, Brian Chesky, in articles like this.
But we all know this mentality, if you will, has been reality for millions of people for a decade or more.
I’ve been saying for years — ask my friends — that “my office is wherever my MacBook Pro is.” I don’t say it to be funny. It’s simply the truth.
MacBook Pro M1 by Martin Katler via Unsplash
It’s a prime reason I’ve been an active investor in $AAPL for decades. That was even before it produced its first laptop — which, for you younger types, was called the PowerBook. It was life-altering.
That was my first Apple laptop, and I’ve owned more laptops from my favorite company than I can count since then. (Yes, I keep upgrading to the latest and best.) So, as a self-employed business
Apple Powerbook, early 1990s – photo by Everyday Basics via Unsplash
owner, I’ve been doing this “office is anywhere” thing for a long, long time. Which makes me find this latest lament about the demise of the office to be quite amusing.
And who doesn’t get that this mentality/reality is hugely less costly than an office lease?
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p.s. To those of you who were smart enough to invest in $ABNB early on, my hat is off to you. Because it has certainly enabled a large part of the movement away from the traditional office, as it continues to do. And it has created no less than an industry of its own at the same time, enriching legions of property entrepreneurs.
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