Hello everyone, I am a little late on this so this may go unread. 

Anyway, my name is Zachary. I graduated university recently with a degree in mathematical economics, and I now work in data analytics for a luxury retail firm. My long-term career interests revolve around computational science, probably in a field related to economic development/urban science. I'm now working towards these goals by taking further courses in information science and mathematics - although I have a long way to go! 

Last year, I was taking a course on historical economic growth, and learned about the core concepts that helped our kind escape the Malthusian trap and achieve accelerating economic growth. It quickly became apparent to me that we should aim as a species to continue achieving this rapid growth, while also remaining cognizant to growth that aligns well with liberal values. Through ourworldindata.com and other forums like EA/LW, I became aware of Jason and the wider movement focusing on Progress Studies, and instantly became interested. Now that I have (slightly) more free time in my life, I'm excited to learn and contribute as much as I can!

Congratulations, Heike! 

What do you imagine the long-term benefits of WFH will be? There's obviously personal pros and cons, but beyond those, it really only seems like Real Estate entities have much to benefit from permanent office-employment, and people in that space don't seem to be happy with the way things are headed. Even the WSJ has been very subtly pushing a return-to-office campaign in the last several months (Most Recently: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/your-money-matters/bosses-want-workers-back-in-the-office-can-they-force-you-to-return/042c8fdc-90bb-4fc1-b596-a205c1f8ddff?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1).

Most recently, I've seen speculation of notable improvements for the Future of Cities in regards to WFH trends. 1.) In-person jobs move to center of cities and residents expand to the edges 2.) traffic congestion significantly drops and 3.) Real Estate prices substantially fall in core areas. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2021.103331)

It seems to me that that pushing WFH and the technology that enables it should be high on the list of priorities for the Future of Cities, especially with #3; falling real estate prices in urban areas may somewhat ease housing crises for the workers that have no choice but to remain working in-person in core urban areas (service,  manufacturing, healthcare, etc).