Hello devRant, It's time to come forward.

I’m Professor Aaron Halbert, if you knew me before tenure turned me into a legend. I’m 83 now, which means I’ve lived through five decades of academic eye-rolling, two revolutions in workplace culture, and more bad office coffee than any human should have to endure.

I was the one who invented working from home.

That’s not a joke, nor is it an exaggeration. Back in 1972, while the world obsessed over typewriters and briefcases, I was knee-deep in a research project on workplace fatigue and domestic productivity. I submitted what would later be referred to by a startled grad student as “wildly ahead of its time”: "Reclaiming the Domestic Sphere: A Framework for Home-Centered Vocational Systems."

In other words—I suggested people might work better if they didn’t commute two hours to sit in fluorescent-lit boxes.

Naturally, I was mocked. A department head told me the only thing people got done at home was laundry. But I kept at it. I retrofitted my own house with early telecom devices, even used a CB radio to simulate real-time collaborative tasks. My neighbors thought I was a conspiracy theorist. I took it as a compliment.

I spent the next 40 years refining the Halberg Principle of Environmental Work Synergy—the idea that productivity blooms when people have control over the space where they work. And then, in 2020, it happened. The world shut down. Suddenly, everyone was dialing in from kitchen tables and living room couches. Zoom calls. Slack messages. Pajama-bottom business meetings.

And all I could think was: “It took a pandemic to catch up to 1972?”

Now I live in a cottage near Lake Wellingford. I grow rosemary, occasionally guest-lecture over webcam (no ring light needed), and enjoy watching people finally realize what I’ve always known: the best office is the one with your dog in it.

I didn’t just predict the future—I decorated it. With houseplants.