Looking at GeekWire’s most-read stories for 2021, this series of headlines stands out as a symbol of the past year, not just for Amazon but for the world at large.

• March 31, 2021: Amazon updates remote work guidance, plans to ‘return to an office-centric culture as our baseline’
• June 10, 2021: Amazon adjusts return-to-office guidance, says employees can work two days a week remotely
• October 11, 2021: Amazon will leave remote work decisions to individual team leaders in new policy twist

In short, no one knew what was going on, or what to do. In the sports world, they would call it a rebuilding year, setting the stage for something better. GeekWire's John Cook puts it more succinctly in our year-end podcast: “It sucked.”

At least, that’s the cynical view, which is why it was refreshing to have Ed Lazowska join us again for this year-end show. A professor at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, he’s a longtime Seattle tech leader, and an “inveterate optimist,” in his own words.

“Yeah, COVID has thrown us all thrown us all kinds of loops,” he acknowledges, but then offers a few examples of a more upbeat way to look at this year’s list.

Listen to the episode for more, as Lazowska joins us again on the GeekWire Podcast to discuss the year's top stories. We also look ahead to the upcoming year, and talk about a few key stories we'll be watching in 2022.

Related: As reported recently on GeekWire, several prominent tech leaders have been working establish a series of UW professorships in Lazowska's honor. Learn more about the initiative here.

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