4 ms·

Slack, I’m Breaking Up with You

32 points by chmars 11y ago

msoad 11y ago
I have a co-worker that refuses to use any chat service at work. You have to email him if you need him and he will get back to you very quickly if he's not busy. That forces us to make a real case before emailing him because emails are more like a serious business!
bgnm2000 11y ago
I can't help but think this message could have been communicated with much more concise writing. Especially if you're going to rant - consider the reader's time and get to point.
- frandroid 11y ago
  In a tweet, mayhaps.
- lexhaynes 11y ago
  Agreed. The break-up analogy was ridiculously long-winded and overbearing. An exhausting read.
- brentm 11y ago
  Though I agree with a lot of his concerns the kicker for me was when he mentioned he is on 10 different Slack teams. That's like signing up for every email list you can find and then complaining that you get too much email.
michaelmior 11y ago
For some reason this was posted yesterday[0] then flagged. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11196379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11196379
- detaro 11y ago
  because it was a duplicate, linked to in the top comment there. dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337
  - michaelmior 11y ago
    Thanks. I thought I had seen more discussion.
athenot 11y ago
I'm not sure I'm following his argument that lots of topic-centered inboxes are worse than one firehose. It's not uncommon for me to finish the day with many of my rooms containing unread messages, because I was only caring about 2-3 rooms centered around the priorities of that day. So that's many messages I didn't have to wade through. In contrast, email requires my attention by default. I've set up smart mailboxes to pull out more important content but there's still a joyous mix of unrelated content that's vying for my attention.
capote 11y ago
This article hasn't arrived at a single point in the first 500 paragraphs, and the metaphor is starting to make me cringe. I give up.
Chefkoochooloo 11y ago
This article was rather a blunder for me. I could not understand what this article was trying to point out. Very scrambled and not concise.
kin 11y ago
In my opinion, Slack is still the best way to have work conversations. Using integrations & plugins right gets you the information you want quickly. And if there are conversations going on that you don't want to be a part of, just turn them off and only accept direct @ messages or something. Help it help you, don't just expect it to solve all of your problems. This is the same exact type of rant as people breaking up with Twitter or Facebook or anything really.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- api 11y ago
  We use Slack and get a lot out of it. We've got people on two continents and it really helps. Sounds like the problem was over-using Slack. I've left Slack channels before because... well... noise. We tend to have a pretty quiet Slack but when we do use it it's convenient and easy and faster than e-mail. I still often use e-mail for longer-format discussions.
  - falsedan 11y ago
    Sounds like poor work-life balance tbh.
    - detaro 11y ago
      What does noisy/non-noisy channels have to do with work-life balance?
      - falsedan 11y ago
        From the article: > I’m finding that “always on” tendency to be a > self-perpetuating feedback loop: the more everyone’s > hanging out, the more conversations take place. The more > conversations, the more everyone’s expected to > participate. Lather, rinse, repeat. and > I belong to roughly 10 different Slack teams. People are > very used to messaging me (directly or publicly) whether > I’m online or not, so there’s a heavy social expectation > for me to keep those conversational plates spinning on > an ongoing basis, even if I’m signed out of all your > clients. Even when the interactions only take place at work, this reads like an engineer overwhelmed with responsibility and feeling like they can't step away. The whole 'break-up' metaphor is a classic burnout pattern too.
        detaro 11y ago
        Oh, sorry, I misinterpreted whom you were talking about, my mistake.
jkot 11y ago
This is not really new. IRC, ICQ, Jabber, this sort of problems were around for past 20 years.
dang 11y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337
- chmars 11y ago
  Sorry for the double post, I had no idea! :(
jcoffland 11y ago
Tl;dr The main point of the article seems to be that Slack is a huge time sink that is no more efficient than email. I have to agree. Slack has a lot of cool features but ultimately I don't have time for socializing during work hours or tracking the endless feeds. Although, in my experience, discussions on Slack do tend to be about work, the long trails of comments from every possible participant are overwhelming. At least with email you can easily limit the number of participants in a conversation.
jbob2000 11y ago
Are these problems with Slack, or problems with the way people use Slack? I use Slack at work; it's just a fancy chat channel hooked up to our repository. We use it when we need to collaborate on something quickly and use other things when time is on our side.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

32 points by chmars 11y ago

msoad 11y ago

I have a co-worker that refuses to use any chat service at work. You have to email him if you need him and he will get back to you very quickly if he's not busy. That forces us to make a real case before emailing him because emails are more like a serious business!

bgnm2000 11y ago

I can't help but think this message could have been communicated with much more concise writing. Especially if you're going to rant - consider the reader's time and get to point.

frandroid 11y ago
In a tweet, mayhaps.
lexhaynes 11y ago
Agreed. The break-up analogy was ridiculously long-winded and overbearing. An exhausting read.
brentm 11y ago
Though I agree with a lot of his concerns the kicker for me was when he mentioned he is on 10 different Slack teams. That's like signing up for every email list you can find and then complaining that you get too much email.

michaelmior 11y ago

For some reason this was posted yesterday[0] then flagged. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11196379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11196379

detaro 11y ago
because it was a duplicate, linked to in the top comment there. dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337
- michaelmior 11y ago
  Thanks. I thought I had seen more discussion.

athenot 11y ago

I'm not sure I'm following his argument that lots of topic-centered inboxes are worse than one firehose. It's not uncommon for me to finish the day with many of my rooms containing unread messages, because I was only caring about 2-3 rooms centered around the priorities of that day. So that's many messages I didn't have to wade through. In contrast, email requires my attention by default. I've set up smart mailboxes to pull out more important content but there's still a joyous mix of unrelated content that's vying for my attention.

capote 11y ago

This article hasn't arrived at a single point in the first 500 paragraphs, and the metaphor is starting to make me cringe. I give up.

Chefkoochooloo 11y ago

This article was rather a blunder for me. I could not understand what this article was trying to point out. Very scrambled and not concise.

kin 11y ago

In my opinion, Slack is still the best way to have work conversations. Using integrations & plugins right gets you the information you want quickly. And if there are conversations going on that you don't want to be a part of, just turn them off and only accept direct @ messages or something. Help it help you, don't just expect it to solve all of your problems. This is the same exact type of rant as people breaking up with Twitter or Facebook or anything really.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

api 11y ago
We use Slack and get a lot out of it. We've got people on two continents and it really helps. Sounds like the problem was over-using Slack. I've left Slack channels before because... well... noise. We tend to have a pretty quiet Slack but when we do use it it's convenient and easy and faster than e-mail. I still often use e-mail for longer-format discussions.
- falsedan 11y ago
  Sounds like poor work-life balance tbh.
  - detaro 11y ago
    What does noisy/non-noisy channels have to do with work-life balance?
    - falsedan 11y ago
      From the article: > I’m finding that “always on” tendency to be a > self-perpetuating feedback loop: the more everyone’s > hanging out, the more conversations take place. The more > conversations, the more everyone’s expected to > participate. Lather, rinse, repeat. and > I belong to roughly 10 different Slack teams. People are > very used to messaging me (directly or publicly) whether > I’m online or not, so there’s a heavy social expectation > for me to keep those conversational plates spinning on > an ongoing basis, even if I’m signed out of all your > clients. Even when the interactions only take place at work, this reads like an engineer overwhelmed with responsibility and feeling like they can't step away. The whole 'break-up' metaphor is a classic burnout pattern too.
      - detaro 11y ago
        Oh, sorry, I misinterpreted whom you were talking about, my mistake.

jkot 11y ago

This is not really new. IRC, ICQ, Jabber, this sort of problems were around for past 20 years.

dang 11y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337

chmars 11y ago
Sorry for the double post, I had no idea! :(

jcoffland 11y ago

Tl;dr The main point of the article seems to be that Slack is a huge time sink that is no more efficient than email. I have to agree. Slack has a lot of cool features but ultimately I don't have time for socializing during work hours or tracking the endless feeds. Although, in my experience, discussions on Slack do tend to be about work, the long trails of comments from every possible participant are overwhelming. At least with email you can easily limit the number of participants in a conversation.

jbob2000 11y ago

Are these problems with Slack, or problems with the way people use Slack? I use Slack at work; it's just a fancy chat channel hooked up to our repository. We use it when we need to collaborate on something quickly and use other things when time is on our side.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]