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>There's nothing magical about in-person communication. Other the fact that the brains of our entire specie has evolved for millions of years for this exact ty

>There's nothing magical about in-person communication. Other the fact that the brains of our entire specie has evolved for millions of years for this exact type of communication, there isn't anything magical, I guess... The information bandwidth of in-person communication is absolutely unparalleled, even if technology can now match in latency. Good luck replicating body language, eye contacts, subtle facial cues etc with Slack messages.

velcii 5y ago
>The information bandwidth of in-person communication is absolutely unparalleled Not really, if you are not interested in communicating emotions or not interested in playing politics as part of the said communication.. In fact, in technical discussion, not conveying too much emotion is a great advantage..
- Cookingboy 5y ago
  >In fact, in technical discussion, not conveying too much emotion is a great advantage.. But I'd just like to remind you that even the most hardcore engineering company cannot possibly having only technical discussions. This really reminds me that how often HN miss the forest for the tree.
  - velcii 5y ago
    >But I'd just like to remind you that even the most hardcore engineering company cannot possibly having only technical discussions. Your point is not very clear, sorry. It seems that you have an emotional reaction to this topic, which seems to muddle your argument. May be take sometime to reflect and get back with more clarity?
    - Cookingboy 5y ago
      >Your point is not very clear, sorry. I honestly don't know how is my point not clear. Being able to have both face to face communication and technology based remote communication is better than being limited to the latter alone. I thought that was a pretty straight forward point. I was simply reminding you that whatever advantage Slack/Email has over in-person communication for technical discussions, they lose that advantage for non-technical discussions, which are just as quintessential for an organization.
    - darkerside 5y ago
      If we were in a group, you would have noticed (or perhaps failed to notice) most people recoiling to your statement or giving you quizzical looks at your odd reaction to a valid point. The conversation would immediately shift away from the poor direction you took it, and towards something the group finds richer for discussion. Here on the internet, we settle for letting you watch downvotes trickle in over time.
axiolite 5y ago
> evolved for millions of years for this exact type of communication A great many people identify themselves as introverts or antisocial, and would feel much better being excluded from all these neuron triggers. > The information bandwidth of in-person communication is absolutely unparalleled Yes, but that bandwidth is not all used productively but wasted on irrelevant bits which do not matter and likely distract from the topic. Implying that more bandwidth helps is suggesting that a book can only be a tiny bit as effective as a video... > Good luck replicating body language, eye contacts, subtle facial cues etc with Slack messages. I wouldn't try. Such things are usually unnecessary to the task at hand, and often detrimental. I'm not going to replicate the odor of what my co-workers ate for lunch either, nor other clues about their general hygiene, nor would I want to even if it was easy to do.
- Cookingboy 5y ago
  >Such things are usually unnecessary to the task at hand, and often detrimental Have you considered the mere possibility that many people's work have different types of tasks than yours? It's so hard not to make stereotypical jokes about engineers when reading comments like this XD
  - oytis 5y ago
    But we are talking about engineering work, right? That's what discussed article is about.
    - Cookingboy 5y ago
      A huge portion of an engineer’s job (especially senior level engineers) aren’t strictly technical. This seems to be something people miss.
      - axiolite 5y ago
        > an engineer’s job (especially senior level engineers) aren’t strictly technical. Text is able to convey information that is not entirely technical as well... This seems to be something people miss. Have you ever read a novel?
oytis 5y ago
If you look at how addictive digital communication is you might conclude it makes a great fit for our brains, maybe a better fit than in-person communication with may be tiresome at times. And body language, eye contacts etc. are not necessarily useful for professional communication, these might as well be distracting and distorting a rational discussion.

velcii 5y ago

>The information bandwidth of in-person communication is absolutely unparalleled Not really, if you are not interested in communicating emotions or not interested in playing politics as part of the said communication.. In fact, in technical discussion, not conveying too much emotion is a great advantage..

Cookingboy 5y ago
>In fact, in technical discussion, not conveying too much emotion is a great advantage.. But I'd just like to remind you that even the most hardcore engineering company cannot possibly having only technical discussions. This really reminds me that how often HN miss the forest for the tree.
- velcii 5y ago
  >But I'd just like to remind you that even the most hardcore engineering company cannot possibly having only technical discussions. Your point is not very clear, sorry. It seems that you have an emotional reaction to this topic, which seems to muddle your argument. May be take sometime to reflect and get back with more clarity?
  - Cookingboy 5y ago
    >Your point is not very clear, sorry. I honestly don't know how is my point not clear. Being able to have both face to face communication and technology based remote communication is better than being limited to the latter alone. I thought that was a pretty straight forward point. I was simply reminding you that whatever advantage Slack/Email has over in-person communication for technical discussions, they lose that advantage for non-technical discussions, which are just as quintessential for an organization.
  - darkerside 5y ago
    If we were in a group, you would have noticed (or perhaps failed to notice) most people recoiling to your statement or giving you quizzical looks at your odd reaction to a valid point. The conversation would immediately shift away from the poor direction you took it, and towards something the group finds richer for discussion. Here on the internet, we settle for letting you watch downvotes trickle in over time.

axiolite 5y ago

> evolved for millions of years for this exact type of communication A great many people identify themselves as introverts or antisocial, and would feel much better being excluded from all these neuron triggers. > The information bandwidth of in-person communication is absolutely unparalleled Yes, but that bandwidth is not all used productively but wasted on irrelevant bits which do not matter and likely distract from the topic. Implying that more bandwidth helps is suggesting that a book can only be a tiny bit as effective as a video... > Good luck replicating body language, eye contacts, subtle facial cues etc with Slack messages. I wouldn't try. Such things are usually unnecessary to the task at hand, and often detrimental. I'm not going to replicate the odor of what my co-workers ate for lunch either, nor other clues about their general hygiene, nor would I want to even if it was easy to do.

Cookingboy 5y ago
>Such things are usually unnecessary to the task at hand, and often detrimental Have you considered the mere possibility that many people's work have different types of tasks than yours? It's so hard not to make stereotypical jokes about engineers when reading comments like this XD
- oytis 5y ago
  But we are talking about engineering work, right? That's what discussed article is about.
  - Cookingboy 5y ago
    A huge portion of an engineer’s job (especially senior level engineers) aren’t strictly technical. This seems to be something people miss.
    - axiolite 5y ago
      > an engineer’s job (especially senior level engineers) aren’t strictly technical. Text is able to convey information that is not entirely technical as well... This seems to be something people miss. Have you ever read a novel?

oytis 5y ago

If you look at how addictive digital communication is you might conclude it makes a great fit for our brains, maybe a better fit than in-person communication with may be tiresome at times. And body language, eye contacts etc. are not necessarily useful for professional communication, these might as well be distracting and distorting a rational discussion.