I’ve been thinking lately about how much the creative industry romanticizes chaos.
The loud room. The packed calendar. Ten people talking over each other in a brainstorm. The assumption that being creative means being perpetually “on.”
As a neurodivergent creative, freelance + WFH has made me realize how much energy I used to spend on everything around the work: filtering noise, switching contexts, reading the room, navigating office politics, being socially “on” — and then trying to make something good with whatever brainpower was left.
Working from home gives me more control over where that energy goes.
It hasn’t made me less collaborative or ambitious. If anything, I have more to offer when I’m not spending half my bandwidth performing productivity.
There are tradeoffs. I definitely notice a little social lag now when I re-enter the world after working alone for long stretches. Turns out “being a person in a room full of other people” is apparently a skill that requires occasional software updates.
But for me, the tradeoff is worth it.
And for people with physical disabilities, working parents, caregivers, and many others, flexibility isn’t even just a preference. It can be what makes participation possible.
Maybe the question isn’t how to get everyone back in the room.
Maybe it’s why we decided being in the room was the measure of good work in the first place.