When I read Paul Graham’s essay about how difficult it is to find great programmers, my reaction was the same as Matt’s: why not hire more remote workers?

Two years ago I was searching for a new job, and I only considered positions that enabled working from home (something I’d done for almost 20 years). Given what I’d heard about the huge demand for mobile developers I figured there would be plenty of options, but I was wrong – there were lots of jobs but all but a few of them required going to an office (and, in my case, moving).

That really surprised me. There are plenty of talented developers who have chosen not to live in overpriced tech hubs like Silicon Valley. If it really is hard for companies to find great programmers, then why don’t they stop requiring people to move to where they are and start allowing people to work from wherever they choose?