Monday, August 17, 2020

Remoteness

Email is a little formal, and even a video talk is more formal than a water-cooler meeting.

You miss a lot of cues remotely--even not-so-remotely. The other night my wife and I were writing in different rooms. Neither of us noticed that the other was slowing down, stretching more, changing breathing patterns a little--so neither noticed that the other was tired and ready for bed.

In the comments to a Chicago Boyz post Gavin wrote "There is probably an element of “eating the seedcorn” in today’s remote work — guys doing certain types of activities who have worked together effectively for a while may be able to continue to work effectively for some time. But as new projects come along and people leave the organization and new people try to find their feet on the job, the lack of face-to-face contact will probably degrade both performance and individual satisfaction."

And... probably new ideas won't congeal as quickly either, if you lose the body-language cues for how David ranks alternatives.

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