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> Words are meaningless, easily misinterpreted and non binding. I wish more people recognized this, instead of expecting everyone else to remember "that thing

> Words are meaningless, easily misinterpreted and non binding. I wish more people recognized this, instead of expecting everyone else to remember "that thing that we talked about, like, last week". I imagine it should be possible to create an organization where all communication would be just specification and documentation. I wonder if there is anything that can't in principle be done that way.

mcculley 4y ago
It is nice where it works out. Some organizations have staff working manual labor who are not as literate or articulate with written communication. Some organizations are competing at a pace where a rival organization can beat them with a well run meeting over waiting for emails to be written, read, and replied to.
kps 4y ago
> remember "that thing that we talked about, like, last week". If you're lucky. Usually it's “Hey new hire, remember that thing Alice and Bob talked about last year, before they left the company?”
MarkChristensen 4y ago
You might want to check out Automattic (the makers of Wordpress) and their P2 tool - https://vickiboykis.com/2021/07/17/writing-for-distributed-teams/ https://vickiboykis.com/2021/07/17/writing-for-distributed-t...
burnished 4y ago
I think that could work in an environment where everything could be cleanly laid out and understood in advance, without room for error or confusion or misalignment. I think it is a lot easier to burn through misunderstandings with face to face or otherwise synchronous speech. Detailed note taking is a good remedy for the whole "words only last as long as your throat cords vibrate" thing. Although now that I think about it we're probably pretty close to agreeing, I'm really just pointing out the value of regular old talking as a good escape for when text based communications slow down or fail but implicitly I'm assuming a world where the default is text.. which is what it sounds like you'd prefer.
smabie 4y ago
I mean in principle almost any form of communication is possible, but there's a reason you don't go to dinner with a friend and only communicate through post-it notes: because it is unnatural and inefficient.

mcculley 4y ago

It is nice where it works out. Some organizations have staff working manual labor who are not as literate or articulate with written communication. Some organizations are competing at a pace where a rival organization can beat them with a well run meeting over waiting for emails to be written, read, and replied to.

kps 4y ago

> remember "that thing that we talked about, like, last week". If you're lucky. Usually it's “Hey new hire, remember that thing Alice and Bob talked about last year, before they left the company?”

MarkChristensen 4y ago

You might want to check out Automattic (the makers of Wordpress) and their P2 tool - https://vickiboykis.com/2021/07/17/writing-for-distributed-teams/ https://vickiboykis.com/2021/07/17/writing-for-distributed-t...

burnished 4y ago

I think that could work in an environment where everything could be cleanly laid out and understood in advance, without room for error or confusion or misalignment. I think it is a lot easier to burn through misunderstandings with face to face or otherwise synchronous speech. Detailed note taking is a good remedy for the whole "words only last as long as your throat cords vibrate" thing. Although now that I think about it we're probably pretty close to agreeing, I'm really just pointing out the value of regular old talking as a good escape for when text based communications slow down or fail but implicitly I'm assuming a world where the default is text.. which is what it sounds like you'd prefer.

smabie 4y ago

I mean in principle almost any form of communication is possible, but there's a reason you don't go to dinner with a friend and only communicate through post-it notes: because it is unnatural and inefficient.