Yesterday morning, after so many years of being a dedicated reader of her blog, I finally read Penelope Trunk’s book. There were many parts of the book that rung true with me, but one in particular was regarding “human moments,” a term I had never heard used before.

Originally coined by Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, he writes that a human moment is “an authentic psychological encounter that can only happen when two people share the same physical space. It has two prerequisites: people’s physical presence and their emotional and intellectual attention.”

Penelope went on to give a specific example that applies very closely to the concept of coworking, which a workplace trend I strongly support.