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The military has a writing style to combat this issue. BLUF is a military communications acronym—it stands for "bottom line up front"—that’s designed to enforc

The military has a writing style to combat this issue. BLUF is a military communications acronym—it stands for "bottom line up front"—that’s designed to enforce speed and clarity in reports and emails. It has previously been discussed here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20964907 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20964907

another-dave 5y ago
I think you're responding particularly to the pointless "hi copple", first message? I know some people find that annoying, but personally, I thin k that's fine. If I _am_ interruptible & I do respond to the initial ping it's nice to have some human interaction before the "down to business" part. Esp when we're all remote. If not, I just get the first & second message at the same time and respond to the query. I think the author is also calling out "doing nothing" even for the meat & bones of the real request — e.g. in his example, even if the collegue did BLUF ("Live Client Issue: Strip integration missing from Xero") the issue still "went away" by itself without his attention if he left it 5min.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  I hate those pointless messages, to the point I developed a stress reaction to them. In business contexts[0], you don't have to choose between being impolite to some people and annoying others. There's a solution that satisfies everyone: just follow your pleasantry with the thing you really wanted to say. Do it immediately. Start typing your request immediately after sending "Hi $name", so that the other side sees the typing indicator. Or better yet, use the magic of Shift+Enter, supported by most IMs out there. Send a single message containing a bunch of pleasantries, followed by a newline (Shift+Enter), followed by the real payload. -- [0] - This is slightly different in personal space. When a long-forgotten acquaintance reaches out to me, I already know they want something, and I wouldn't be offended if they skipped the useless pleasantries - but apparently enough people demand to be taken through the "how are you and your kids?" dance first, that it's unsafe to state the actual purpose up front. But in business conversation, you're not supposed to go deeply personal like this, so there's no ambiguity - the reason for communication is business-related, by definition.
  - swader999 5y ago
    It is better to put the salutation and the request in the same comm. Then it is perfectly appropriate and even professional to address your recipient in a cordial way.
    - rompic 5y ago
      This! I even put https://www.nohello.com/2013/01/please-dont-say-just-hello-in-chat.html?m=1 https://www.nohello.com/2013/01/please-dont-say-just-hello-i... in my status. I still think adding the name after the hi goes a long way.
- ranguna 5y ago
  I completely agree with you about saying hello or anything similar . If we don't start an interaction with something like that, it just looks like we are zombie robots that have had all the humanity sucked out of their bodies. I not only say hello, but also ask how they are doing, and I actually want to know if they are ok, sometimes I even go on a tangent about their day or anything they want to talk about, only after all that is when I ask what I wanted. We are human and we should behave like such, or else we'll just die little by little while we're working.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
heurisko 5y ago
I don't think this is the primary point of the article. And I don't think it is a case of "bottom line up front", either, which applies to synchronous or asynchronous communication. I think, if anything, the colleague is breaking https://nohello.com https://nohello.com The point of the article is that they would ignore your request to start with, regardless of how efficiently it is communicated.
swader999 5y ago
Similar to business writing - in any correspondence you need to put your hard request in the first sentence after your introductory salutation. Be very explicit what you need and the following paragraph should provide details that expand on it, enabling strategies. Lastly, justification or selling if warranted. The five C's also help: Clear, concise, correct, courteous and considerate.
combatentropy 5y ago
Newspapers had the same rule, called the inverted pyramid, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)

another-dave 5y ago

I think you're responding particularly to the pointless "hi copple", first message? I know some people find that annoying, but personally, I thin k that's fine. If I _am_ interruptible & I do respond to the initial ping it's nice to have some human interaction before the "down to business" part. Esp when we're all remote. If not, I just get the first & second message at the same time and respond to the query. I think the author is also calling out "doing nothing" even for the meat & bones of the real request — e.g. in his example, even if the collegue did BLUF ("Live Client Issue: Strip integration missing from Xero") the issue still "went away" by itself without his attention if he left it 5min.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
I hate those pointless messages, to the point I developed a stress reaction to them. In business contexts[0], you don't have to choose between being impolite to some people and annoying others. There's a solution that satisfies everyone: just follow your pleasantry with the thing you really wanted to say. Do it immediately. Start typing your request immediately after sending "Hi $name", so that the other side sees the typing indicator. Or better yet, use the magic of Shift+Enter, supported by most IMs out there. Send a single message containing a bunch of pleasantries, followed by a newline (Shift+Enter), followed by the real payload. -- [0] - This is slightly different in personal space. When a long-forgotten acquaintance reaches out to me, I already know they want something, and I wouldn't be offended if they skipped the useless pleasantries - but apparently enough people demand to be taken through the "how are you and your kids?" dance first, that it's unsafe to state the actual purpose up front. But in business conversation, you're not supposed to go deeply personal like this, so there's no ambiguity - the reason for communication is business-related, by definition.
- swader999 5y ago
  It is better to put the salutation and the request in the same comm. Then it is perfectly appropriate and even professional to address your recipient in a cordial way.
  - rompic 5y ago
    This! I even put https://www.nohello.com/2013/01/please-dont-say-just-hello-in-chat.html?m=1 https://www.nohello.com/2013/01/please-dont-say-just-hello-i... in my status. I still think adding the name after the hi goes a long way.
ranguna 5y ago
I completely agree with you about saying hello or anything similar . If we don't start an interaction with something like that, it just looks like we are zombie robots that have had all the humanity sucked out of their bodies. I not only say hello, but also ask how they are doing, and I actually want to know if they are ok, sometimes I even go on a tangent about their day or anything they want to talk about, only after all that is when I ask what I wanted. We are human and we should behave like such, or else we'll just die little by little while we're working.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

heurisko 5y ago

I don't think this is the primary point of the article. And I don't think it is a case of "bottom line up front", either, which applies to synchronous or asynchronous communication. I think, if anything, the colleague is breaking https://nohello.com https://nohello.com The point of the article is that they would ignore your request to start with, regardless of how efficiently it is communicated.

swader999 5y ago

Similar to business writing - in any correspondence you need to put your hard request in the first sentence after your introductory salutation. Be very explicit what you need and the following paragraph should provide details that expand on it, enabling strategies. Lastly, justification or selling if warranted. The five C's also help: Clear, concise, correct, courteous and considerate.

combatentropy 5y ago

Newspapers had the same rule, called the inverted pyramid, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)