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>> Mostly it's a process and tool issue, but still humans will rather just turn around and ask the team than spend a minute describing their issue on Slack/what

>> Mostly it's a process and tool issue, but still humans will rather just turn around and ask the team than spend a minute describing their issue on Slack/whatever. I actually find it harder to understand people who prefer to call/talk rather than describe the issue in text. First, when you have an e-mail/wiki/Slack - you've got a proper paper trail on who's responsible for what. Second, you've got a conversation you can always return to - so that you wouldn't need to ask about the details again and again. And third - you can send this conversation to someone else and they can understand what's happening. Basically - my point is that for the issues that are worthy of a long conversation, screen is always better. Especially if you can add things like diagrams (e.g. graphviz) into the equation. I am mostly not happy about people who are currently older at the offices (40+) and who think that chats are made as a replacement for the phone (e.g. you are supposed to say "hello", wait, then "hello" again, then to communicate in real-time). One of the best collaborations I had was with I was 15 ~15 years ago. We had an IRC chat with a wiki. The team was all over the globe - and we made things happen without speaking to each other in real-time. We used wiki for documentation and chat for most of the communication that didn't need history.

theshrike79 7y ago
It's easier to whip up the problem layout on paper or a whiteboard and explain the problem, than start preparing a graphviz presentation. Some things are just easier in person. Again, this can be solved with tools (some tool that allows a shared drawing surface with video/audio for example), but very few people bother. I've seen $$$$ put into expensive 80" Surface screens and they're still used like a cheap whiteboard.
- bart_spoon 7y ago
  My coworkers and I made great use of a stylus, 2 in 1 laptops, and Microsoft Whiteboard for this purpose. It makes whiteboarding while remote very simple. In fact, it’s better than in-person whiteboarding because it allows for multiple people to write at the same time, and instead of everyone taking pictures with their phone when we finished, we could simply send out the screen to as an image afterwards, or pick up a session again later. Once we had this workflow setup, we found that no one used the giant, expensive Surface Hubs anymore, even in person.

theshrike79 7y ago

It's easier to whip up the problem layout on paper or a whiteboard and explain the problem, than start preparing a graphviz presentation. Some things are just easier in person. Again, this can be solved with tools (some tool that allows a shared drawing surface with video/audio for example), but very few people bother. I've seen $$$$ put into expensive 80" Surface screens and they're still used like a cheap whiteboard.

bart_spoon 7y ago
My coworkers and I made great use of a stylus, 2 in 1 laptops, and Microsoft Whiteboard for this purpose. It makes whiteboarding while remote very simple. In fact, it’s better than in-person whiteboarding because it allows for multiple people to write at the same time, and instead of everyone taking pictures with their phone when we finished, we could simply send out the screen to as an image afterwards, or pick up a session again later. Once we had this workflow setup, we found that no one used the giant, expensive Surface Hubs anymore, even in person.