Will VR reduce the need to commute to work?

[Obsessed With Gaming]

Will VR reduce or eliminate the need to commute to work or school? What will happen if VR was to eliminate the need to commute to work. Less cars? Less office buildings? Less government funding for schools?

[Sensei]

There are already professions which don't require visiting workplace e.g. computer programmer, webmaster, graphician, musician, translator. Working at home saves time required for arriving to and from workplace. It might be even 2h per day of life every working day, with 5 days per week work gives 520h (~22 days) per year saved. It saves energy required for fuel. However for some people it is good to work in group of people, especially younger and not enough knowledgeable. Interactions and discussions are inspiring them, and helping to work efficiently. They learn something new each day from more experienced co-workers, bosses and managers. For other people interactions are distracting them from work, reducing their efficiency.

 

There are already e-schools, available as on-line websites, with the all needed knowledge, quizzes, exams in one place. Somebody can read the same sentence multiple times until remembering (in the real life school teacher will tell only once, and you can't go back). It's harder for students to ask questions. It's harder for some students to concentrate on just learning. They must be well self aware what they want from life. Home can be very distracting place. There is plentiful more pleasant things to do in it, than learning.

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Sensei

[iNow]

Video chat and Skype are enough for most. That along with teleconference and the occasional trip work great. No VR needed. I’ve been primarily remote for almost 7 years. 

[Raider5678]

3 hours ago, Sensei said:

computer programmer

I wish I didn't have to physically go to work, but this is hardly the case in my position.

[Sensei]

Just now, Raider5678 said:

I wish I didn't have to physically go to work, but this is hardly the case in my position.

Please explain..

Anybody can make e.g. websites from home. It just requires learning HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript..

Majority of work as e.g. website developer is not in making website, but seeking for new client (worldwide).

 

[Raider5678]

3 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Please explain..

Anybody can make e.g. websites from home. It just requires learning HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript..

Majority of work as e.g. website developer is not in making website, but seeking for new client (worldwide).

I work for a company making software for them to track industrial quotas, mainly collecting data. My job requires me to be at work physically simply because it's a rule, not that I actually have to be to write the software.

[studiot]

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:38 PM, Obsessed With Gaming said:

Will VR reduce or eliminate the need to commute to work or school? What will happen if VR was to eliminate the need to commute to work. Less cars? Less office buildings? Less government funding for schools?

No.

Unfortunately there are many mechanisms in modern society tending to increase the commute rather than decrease it.

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, Raider5678 said:

I work for a company making software for them to track industrial quotas, mainly collecting data. My job requires me to be at work physically simply because it's a rule, not that I actually have to be to write the software.

Did they (or you) hear about SVN? Tortoise SVN (if working from Windows)?

https://tortoisesvn.net/

Install such server on your workstation (start from home computer, to learn it). Show them that programmers working in a team of coworkers can update the same project from the Internet..

..or maybe not.. because they will learn their programmers can do the work from home, at any time, and they will require you to update it at any hour even exceeding normal working hours.. which is typical for Internet administrators who are called at any hour to get their [...] to work and fix some problem..

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by Sensei

[iNow]

It’s often about company culture. Some companies are run by folks who don’t hire good people they can trust to work remotely. Others hire professionals and measure them by their output, regardless of when and where they get the work done. 

Other jobs still require physically being there to align adjustband move stuff or serve people. 

[Strange]

27 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Did they (or you) hear about SVN? Tortoise SVN (if working from Windows)?

https://tortoisesvn.net/

Install such server on your workstation (start from home computer, to learn it). Show them that programmers working in a team of coworkers can update the same project from the Internet..

..or maybe not.. because they will learn their programmers can do the work from home, any time, and they will require you to update it at any hour even exceeding normal working hours.. which is typical for Internet administrators who are called at any hour to get their [...] to work and fix some problem..

 

Some companies just don't let people work remotely, even if there is no practical reason why not. I worked for one like that - we also had to track the time spent working on different tasks, produce daily summaries of what we had done, attend weekly meetings reporting what we had done, ... 

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, Raider5678 said:

I wish I didn't have to physically go to work, but this is hardly the case in my position.

They are afraid of that if you (programmers) are not at workplace in their office, you will be not working at full power, and fulfilling your job responsibilities..

30 minutes ago, Strange said:

Some companies just don't let people work remotely, even if there is no practical reason why not.

Hilariously, Europe needs farm workers, who will do unpleasant and unwanted by native people work on farms. I suggested them years ago to invest in e.g. broadband Internet in Africa countries, and use remote controlled drones, which will e.g. harvest fruits from trees. Person in Africa with high speed Internet connection would be acquiring control over single drone at a time, seeing on computer screen what drone camera is recording and sending through Internet (with tiny delay), and cutting fruits from tree, then drone will fly away to the base. Human will get control over yet another machine, and receiving money for work. Without having to migrate to Europe to earn more..

Why you don't see such things already? Because they're not listening to my advises..

 

[Raider5678]

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

Did they (or you) hear about SVN? Tortoise SVN (if working from Windows)?

 

No, however take my word for it, whether they did or not they want you there in person.

The head of my department is rather fond of meetings for some reason. Honestly, I think we spend more time in meetings then actually working some days.

[Strange]

35 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Why you don't see such things already? Because they're not listening to my advises..

Or possibly because it is not economically viable. 

[iNow]

56 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

The head of my department is rather fond of meetings for some reason. Honestly, I think we spend more time in meetings then actually working some days.

Welcome to the rest of your life (if you have a decent paying job, meetings are inevitable). 

Now, good leaders can help make it better. 

1) Only invite people who really need to be there. If they can be informed later via email, don’t invite them. 

2) Have clear objectives and agenda. Publish both in advance. Make sure everyone is absolutely clear on the topic and target. Stick to timelines. Don’t let speakers drone on. Leave time for Q&A at the end 

3) Ignore the 30 and 60 minute defaults in most email and scheduling apps. Book 10 mins at a time, and try for 10 min max meetings / 20 if you must

4) When meeting in person, don’t allow sitting. People who are standing are more aware of hurrying up and finishing. If sitting, get people moving half way through to restore blood flow and increase energy among the group 

5) Have a way to designate a primary speaker. Could be anything, even as silly as a talking stick. If you’re not holding the stick then you’re not talking. People talking over each other causes needless confusion, delays, and repetition of basic points. 

Anyway, most of my job is meetings. Often I’m facilitating calls with hundreds of people. Done right, you can get shit done, but like everything else there’s a time and a place and a process for doing it right. 

Back to the OP, what are some examples of jobs that aren’t so easily done remotely or with VR or related collaboration platforms?

Edited November 19, 2018 by iNow

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

Or possibly because it is not economically viable. 

Minimum wage per hour in UK is $10, Germany $10.13, Poland $3.66, Ukraine $0.83.. Africa? Percents of these.. Building private drone with camera retail cost here is $100-$200. After how many hours of harvesting e.g. fruit trees it will return? 10-20 hours in UK.. How can it not being economical viable?

The thing is there is no proper fast Internet infrastructure in 3rd world countries, which need it the most. People are ordered to pay for it. If people have no money, no infrastructure is build by western telecommunication companies, in advance. Private owned telecommunication companies want, their shareholders at least, demand steady predictable year by year income. No income for years from some market, they won't invest in it, in enough advance. So European governments, which want to decrease economical migration, should replace telecommunication companies and invest in the future. Make agricultural drones, agricultural devices, remotely controlled through Internet, with real time feedback, real time transfer of video and audio data, and let people in Africa earn money, seating in the front of computers, without getting out of their houses, and harvesting in European countries.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Sensei

[iNow]

Sensei - I love your can do attitude and willingness to think of clever programmatic solutions, but front end capital investments of tyke required for this are not always possible, especially for businesses operating with tight margins and often in the red / barely able to make payroll. 

[Raider5678]

12 hours ago, Sensei said:

Make agricultural drones, agricultural devices, remotely controlled through Internet, with real time feedback, real time transfer of video and audio data, and let people in Africa earn money, seating in the front of computers, without getting out of their houses, and harvesting in European countries.

Won't happen.

It'd be at least 1000 times cheaper to simply invest in making the drones automatically do that without human input. 

Reminds me, in California they raised the minimum wage up, and a guy showed up at a friend of mine's workplace. The guy from California harvested watermelons and had 500 workers. Since they raised the minimum wage again, he decided he was going to just automate the process. Spent almost $20,000,000 in research and development to create a fully automated watermelon harvester, and then fired virtually all of his workers.

I suspect the same thing to happen to farm jobs throughout the country. Even in my area these major businesses have bought all the farmland, and they don't even hire anyone, they simply send out automated tractors, harvest all the food, and export it somewhere else......

VR won't make economic sense in the scenarios you're suggesting.

 

Edit: For the story about California, a quick clarification. It's being gradually raised, which gave the owner time to figure out that a $20,000,000 investment now would be well worth it by the time it hit $15.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Raider5678

[Sensei]

There are agricultural tasks which can be automated, and there are agricultural tasks which cannot be easily automated.

Remote controlled flying drones can reach fruit tree tips in automatic mode, and just the last stage of precise cutting fruit from them is given for poor people from 3rd world countries via fast broadband Internet, which will earn them and their families money they require to survive, thus limiting economical migration to Europe and USA. IMHO it's smarter way to spend 20 billions of dollars on such remote controlled drones system to limit migration, than building a wall..

You're looking at this just from (economical) farmer's point of view. I am looking at this from point of view of giving people jobs, in the places they are living now with their families, to limit migration. Remote controlled devices via Internet don't have to be agricultural. It can be anything.

 

[Raider5678]

2 minutes ago, Sensei said:

You're looking at this just from (economical) farmer's point of view.

I'm looking at it from the perspective that if the farmer can't afford to implement it in the first place, they're not going to go bankrupt trying to give people in third world countries jobs.

[dimreepr]

35 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

I'm looking at it from the perspective that if the farmer can't afford to implement it in the first place, they're not going to go bankrupt trying to give people in third world countries jobs.

 

 don't America have farms?

[Raider5678]

50 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

 don't America have farms?

Yes. They do. 

[dimreepr]

10 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

Yes. They do. 

So what is their wrath?

[Raider5678]

2 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

So what is their wrath?

Grapes.

What's the reality of farms?

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

Grapes.

What's the reality of farms?

 

send out or subcontract work to others.

"it saves time and money to farm out some writing work to specialized companies"

synonyms:

contract out, outsource, assign to others, subcontract, delegate "the job of building the models was farmed out to the Shawcraft firm"

[Raider5678]

1 minute ago, dimreepr said:

send out or subcontract work to others.

 

Or automate it.

Don't Gloucestershire have computers?