Ah, fond memories. At the worst place, it was 5 weeks before I could log into a computer. Then daily "scrum" conference calls with 40 people on 3 continents, which took about 90 minutes each. Detailed written proposals (Word docs, multiple pages) required for every code change, even small fixes.

Minimal friction is the opposite scenario - be a contractor, take whole jobs, do it all yourself. I prefer it, but there's no coasting.