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> There's nothing wrong about a multi day email chain. Email chains can work for some things, but they mostly suck compared to face to face meetings. You never

> There's nothing wrong about a multi day email chain. Email chains can work for some things, but they mostly suck compared to face to face meetings. You never know if someone else is silent because they agree, they haven't read the whole email, or they haven't taken time to write a response. Most things able to be solved by email chains are better off in some sort of issue tracking or wiki system.

ownagefool 7y ago
Face to face meetings also suck because the extroverts own the floor. You don't know if people didn't pipe up because they agree, or because they aren't rude enough to stop Bob talking, and now it's too late.
- thanatropism 7y ago
  I know both extroverts and introverts who are really bad at email type text communication.
  - wolco 7y ago
    Equal playing field.
    - thanatropism 7y ago
      You’re missing it. Check your textually-adept privilege. Seriously. I’ve always been a very good writer but people in STEM often aren’t.
      - ecnahc515 7y ago
        And then when it's face to face, you have people who aren't lingually adept, what then? Take someone who speaks English as a second language. They may not be able to process what's being said in a face to face as fast as the topic is moving, but in an email thread they can take their time to read it all, and compose a response (which may take longer for them due to English being a second language). It's not as simple as either of you make it seem.
  - ownagefool 7y ago
    Fair point. I was mostly just making the counter point, however to expand on this, at least with the email thread you can take longer to compose your response or go talk to someone about it if you think it's important. It's viewed a bit weirder to follow up a face-to-face meeting with your counter points in an email. But I actually just think communication is hard for a lot of people. Locking people in a room and expecting them to come up with a decision is a pretty poor way to work. Combining both text and talking, and giving enough time between discussion and decisions is probably a winner.
    - lanstin 7y ago
      Communication is a fundamentally hard problem. How to tell if a given semantic state has been replicated in the brain of the others. Really until people repeat back in their own words you have no idea; even then, they may have alarming different versions of some of the concepts used in the semantic state.
- addicted 7y ago
  The same thing happens in email chains as well. A good meeting lead can make sure they get everyone's input in a face to face without necessarily putting them on the spot. Sadly those are few and far in between. I worked with one and they were excellent meetings. They got ideas out, and predicted possible issues better than any other meetings I've been part of.
aNoob7000 7y ago
A face to face meeting is no silver bullet either. I've been to many meeting where someone with a strong opinion and with the manager's blessing takes over the conversation/agenda. What I like about an email is that it allows you time to digest the information and then respond to someone.
- lobotryas 7y ago
  It’s almost like both approaches have their pros, cons, and appropriate times when they should be used. I like a combined arms approach. Start an email thread and if there is no timely reply, or consensus is getting hard to reach, walk over to the other person’s desk for a chat or call a meeting.
  - aserafini 7y ago
    Exactly. The ‘best’ communication method for an issue is entirely contextual.
alexhutcheson 7y ago
> Most things able to be solved by email chains are better off in some sort of issue tracking or wiki system. In my experience, nothing except "bugs" and "customer support issues" are better in an issue tracking system. Issue trackers add too much overhead for end users, and the "structured data" features encourage people to adopt processes that require every user to think about what level of the hierarchy some issue belongs at, what tags to assign, who "owns" the issue, etc. For most communication, there ends up being a serious impedance mismatch between the structure of the data in the issue tracker and the natural flow of communication.
notus 7y ago
if only we could instantly message each other...

ownagefool 7y ago

Face to face meetings also suck because the extroverts own the floor. You don't know if people didn't pipe up because they agree, or because they aren't rude enough to stop Bob talking, and now it's too late.

thanatropism 7y ago
I know both extroverts and introverts who are really bad at email type text communication.
- wolco 7y ago
  Equal playing field.
  - thanatropism 7y ago
    You’re missing it. Check your textually-adept privilege. Seriously. I’ve always been a very good writer but people in STEM often aren’t.
    - ecnahc515 7y ago
      And then when it's face to face, you have people who aren't lingually adept, what then? Take someone who speaks English as a second language. They may not be able to process what's being said in a face to face as fast as the topic is moving, but in an email thread they can take their time to read it all, and compose a response (which may take longer for them due to English being a second language). It's not as simple as either of you make it seem.
- ownagefool 7y ago
  Fair point. I was mostly just making the counter point, however to expand on this, at least with the email thread you can take longer to compose your response or go talk to someone about it if you think it's important. It's viewed a bit weirder to follow up a face-to-face meeting with your counter points in an email. But I actually just think communication is hard for a lot of people. Locking people in a room and expecting them to come up with a decision is a pretty poor way to work. Combining both text and talking, and giving enough time between discussion and decisions is probably a winner.
  - lanstin 7y ago
    Communication is a fundamentally hard problem. How to tell if a given semantic state has been replicated in the brain of the others. Really until people repeat back in their own words you have no idea; even then, they may have alarming different versions of some of the concepts used in the semantic state.
addicted 7y ago
The same thing happens in email chains as well. A good meeting lead can make sure they get everyone's input in a face to face without necessarily putting them on the spot. Sadly those are few and far in between. I worked with one and they were excellent meetings. They got ideas out, and predicted possible issues better than any other meetings I've been part of.

aNoob7000 7y ago

A face to face meeting is no silver bullet either. I've been to many meeting where someone with a strong opinion and with the manager's blessing takes over the conversation/agenda. What I like about an email is that it allows you time to digest the information and then respond to someone.

lobotryas 7y ago
It’s almost like both approaches have their pros, cons, and appropriate times when they should be used. I like a combined arms approach. Start an email thread and if there is no timely reply, or consensus is getting hard to reach, walk over to the other person’s desk for a chat or call a meeting.
- aserafini 7y ago
  Exactly. The ‘best’ communication method for an issue is entirely contextual.

alexhutcheson 7y ago

> Most things able to be solved by email chains are better off in some sort of issue tracking or wiki system. In my experience, nothing except "bugs" and "customer support issues" are better in an issue tracking system. Issue trackers add too much overhead for end users, and the "structured data" features encourage people to adopt processes that require every user to think about what level of the hierarchy some issue belongs at, what tags to assign, who "owns" the issue, etc. For most communication, there ends up being a serious impedance mismatch between the structure of the data in the issue tracker and the natural flow of communication.

notus 7y ago

if only we could instantly message each other...