15 ms·

Show HN: I built an app for when I talk too much in online meetings

451 points by interleave 4y ago

Hey HN! Alexis here, I’m a product manager and software developer in Berlin by way of New York. I want to show you this app I made – It’s like a "buddy" for those, like myself, who inadvertedly talk too much in meetings. The app gives me feedback and a little more in control of what I have influence over by: * Keeping track of how long I’ve been speaking * Catching myself before I talk too much * Developing a better sense of timing I truly love having conversations with people in real-life. But online meetings, especially group calls, tend to make me nervous. I can't read body language. The tone of voice, micro-experessions and social cues get lost. If you, too, accidentally talk too much too often, check it out "Unblah". Watch the quick 2-minute demo and download the macOS app over at https://unblah.me/ https://unblah.me/. Cheers! Alexis PS: There’s a whole FAQ section for common questions you may have – Including if this is yet another "native" Electron app ;) edit: bullet-list formatting

obaid 4y ago
This is pretty neat. I am going to use it to monitor myself during the calls. I am curious about the tech behind this. Speaker identification locally on the machine seems like what's happening here. The nerd in me wants more tech deep dive :)
- interleave 4y ago
  Let me know how it goes – Would love to hear your experience. It's a small but solid ML model that I've been working on. And I've got a 'headphones'-free feature on my personal roadmap, too!
twald 4y ago
Thanks for sharing! Do you plan to add this to the menu bar in the future?
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey there, you're very welcome. I hadn't thought of the menu bar yet. How would you want that to work?
- sent-hil 4y ago
  Second that for a menu bar. Something to quickly glance up to see if I'm talking too much. PS, just downloaded, looks promising! Will try it and let you know.
  - interleave 4y ago
    Cool, thanks for giving it a spin, too! If there are any issues with the installation/set up, please let me know. Happy to jump on a call as well (See the contact button on the site)
DennisMaHa 4y ago
Sounds like a great idea. Just an idea for another feature: a word counter. I tend to often use words like "um" when I'm nervous. Good look on your product :)
gardenhedge 4y ago
I wish behaviour like this was weeded out in the interview process. It is really damaging to teams and productivity and I would estimate most people won't try to fix it like OP has tried.
- interleave 4y ago
  Interesting perspective. I can only speak for myself of course: The issue only happens in online meetings and probably only with specific teams. So, I would have "slipped through", if your interview process is in-person. It starts with the awareness in my opinion. There are people who talk a lot and enjoy dominating the conversation. I wrote an extensive FAQ on why Unblah is not for them. Those who (like me) talk a lot but are painfully aware – I think aren't extremely damaging. I hope.
  - powerhour 4y ago
    It's probably more common as the person becomes more familiar with the group -- at least it is for me. That'll make it hard or impossible to identify during interviews. I've been trying not to speak at all during meetings, instead following up in chat. As a bonus, this means there's a searchable record of the details, and thus is far more valuable than any in person or video meeting could ever be.
    - interleave 4y ago
      > It's probably more common as the person becomes more familiar with the group -- at least it is for me. That'll make it hard or impossible to identify during interviews. Agreed. > I've been trying not to speak at all during meetings, instead following up in chat. How does that work? I mean, interpersonally?
      - powerhour 4y ago
        I've always been on small teams so I think it works ok, but I guess it could be an unfair burden for my coworkers. Maybe I should ask.
hamaluik 4y ago
Unfortunately I think I have the exact opposite problem (don't talk enough) but awesome work! And thank you for making and clarifying that it is private and 100% on device. More tools need to be like this!
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey there! I empathize that not talking enough is just as difficult. I have had this on my radar as well and, in a way, you can totally use it to track your non-speaking as well. Here's an idea: What if there was a toggle for your scenario and the count-down of "other people talking" started when you're silent. The colors on timeline would be inverted, you'd see your "airtime" as a few gray dots. What do you think? Would this be helpful?
  - hamaluik 4y ago
    I think it could be, but without trying it I'd hesitate to say spend a bunch of time and energy implementing it. I also can't really help you as I don't have a mac to run it on.
dingleberry420 4y ago
- gnicholas 4y ago
  It’s a Show HN, which means it’s the first version. There is no reason to expect it won’t be on other platforms later.
xfalcox 4y ago
I really need this for Linux. Sometime I get carried away...
- interleave 4y ago
  Damn, I'm very sorry – I can't deliver that at this moment.
- aloisdg 4y ago
  Same here. I am the kind of person who can get lost in a monologue tunnel quite easily.
- acidburnNSA 4y ago
  Might be relatively easy. I dont think you need to classify anything in the sense of speech diarization; just gotta check mike levels and do some stats to estimate starting and stopping. Time to learn linux audio apis I guess.
_gmnw 4y ago
How can I share this with a coworker without being rude haha?
- interleave 4y ago
  Totally understand. It's the most common question I've gotten for those who themselves experience 'the blah' by someone else. I published an FAQ (https://unblah.me/#faqs https://unblah.me/#faqs) earlier today. Posting it here for simplicity: --- Question: I have this person on my team who talks WAY too much and never notices it. They LOVE hearing themselves talk and never shut up. Should I tell them to get this app? --- Answer: First off... I believe your struggle with this person is 100% real. I fully believe their behavior is affecting you negatively. But, my answer is a STRONG NO. Please don’t use Unblah as a proxy for a difficult conversation that sounds like it needs to be had. Think about it: They would never use it anyways, because, as you’re saying yourself “...and never even notice it.”. They don't have a problem. You do. I don't know how much rapport you two have, how much safe space you can create for resolving this situation, etc. So, to keep everyone safe, please check with HR or leadership on how to best deal with this situation if it impacts you, your team and your performance. For learning more on this kind of topic, I can recommend “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” by Bruce Patton, Douglas Stone, and Sheila Heen.
  - frogpelt 4y ago
    This sounds like a possible next step for your app: “unblah” for teams.
    - interleave 4y ago
      Yes, has been on my radar for exactly that reason. I want to believe there is a wetware solution in there somewhere :)
- interleave 4y ago
  And: You can always lead by example!
themisto 4y ago
Love it. Simple and effective UI. In the past I've had the opposite problem occasionally where I think I'm taking up much more time than I am (a consequence of nervousness maybe) and this would be helpful for that too -- not just an indicator for when you talk too long, but also when for when you are still "in the green" to combat that nervousness induced timewarp.
- interleave 4y ago
  Ohhhhh... Right. Just to mirror what I understand: You have experienced that, while talking, you thought "Oh, I've been talking for hours already. I should stop now." but in reality you haven't even scratched the, let's say, 30 second mark? Absolutely relevant – I hadn't even thought of that possibility. I'm actually thinking, the whole app could stay the same, just swap the green/red colors (?)
  - themisto 4y ago
    Yeah exactly! Thinking back, the time's I've felt this the most is during stressful interviews -- e.g. I'm asked a difficult question and part way through my answer my nerves say "You've been talking for ages, you've lost them" but in reality it's been a perfectly reasonable amount of time and if I listen to my nerves I risk cutting the answer short. I'd actually love a tool like this for interviews -- if had a mac or there was a linux build I'd definitely use this. Re: Colours -- If I were to use this for this use-case (next time work gives me a mac perhaps) I think the current green -> red arrangement is fine as-is, as it covers both use-cases (if red -> too long; if green -> still have time)
    - interleave 4y ago
      Thank you for sharing – I just spoke with my girlfriend who described the exact same thing. I had no idea. > if had a mac or there was a linux build I'd definitely use this. while I don't have resources now for a Linux build, where would I start in terms of window systems/dekstop environment (I don't even know if those are still the right terms – My last desktop box was running debian/sarge)
irrational 4y ago
I have the opposite problem. According to my reviews, everyone likes me and I do great work. The only ding against me is that I never talk. I can go weeks without uttering a word in total comfort.
- anonu 4y ago
  Maybe you should ask your colleagues to install this app?
  - pimlottc 4y ago
    As the page itself suggests, perhaps they should just talk about the issue with their colleagues first.
- lulzury 4y ago
  It is hard to join when it feels like interrupting, and you might not want to do that due to differences in culture and/or personality. However, you have to consider joining in the conversation and sharing your thoughts. I noticed people can start making assumptions or making decisions for you, which is not fun.
- selykg 4y ago
  The app could be used for that. It does work in the opposite, the lack of talking is shown in the chart as well. Not to say you need to arbitrarily start talking but, if this is something people ask you to do more and you're generally okay with it, then this could possibly help.
- tvanantwerp 4y ago
  I've been getting this feedback since grade school, and I'm still getting it now in my 30's. It's an extroverts' world and I just live in it...
ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
Could we turn this app into wearable tech so that it can be used IRL for dating?
d3sandoval 4y ago
I'm going to use this for user interviews since I have a hard time talking too much during the introduction. Also, stand-ups...
- interleave 4y ago
  Hope it helps you, ping me if you need anything. PS: The "introductions" are my personal Kryptonite.
gscho 4y ago
Wanted to let you know HTTP requests are not automatically redirected to HTTPS. Love the idea for this, will be trying it out!
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey gscho – Thank you so much for letting me know, have NO idea how that http:// http:// got in there (?) Please don't tell me you're getting a browser error after the click (?) Do you know who/how can help me update that title?
  - gscho 4y ago
    Not sure how you’re hosting the site but the best way to fix this would be to have your web server automatically redirect incoming http traffic to https. Then it doesn’t matter if the link is http or https :)
    - interleave 4y ago
      I forgot to set the 'Enforce SSL' in the Github pages preferences. Updated this morning X)
rubslopes 4y ago
If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to the realization that you talk too much? Did your colleagues tell you that, or did you figured it out by yourself?
- interleave 4y ago
  Hi rubslopes, good question. As a neurodiverse person, I've been acutely aware of my impact on conversations for the last two years (since diagnosis). And I guess I just started noticing when I 'flew off the rails' and think to myself "Ohhh... Shit. I just 'lost' everyone." And how embarrassed that made me feel. Then I read this article https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much which gave me some guidance and vocabulary that I didn't have until then. Then I started keeping tabs on my 'airtime' and I decided I had to build a simple feedback loop. Does this answer your question?
  - rubslopes 4y ago
    Yes, it does! Thank you.
bncy 4y ago
While it's not a bit problem for me, I've got a friend who really needs help with breaking his own monologs, so I'm sending him that
- interleave 4y ago
  Bold. Please keep me/us in here updated!
litttle_b 4y ago
I especially appreciate seeing this kind of tool + level of self awareness, as a woman working in tech. For everyone here who's asking how to get their coworkers using something like this, there's a similar feature in Sesh (web app https://sesh.com/ https://sesh.com/ and zoom app https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/lmZj36WWSJut8-hAaUJrhQ https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/lmZj36WWSJut8-hAaUJrhQ ) that gives everyone equal opportunities to speak (and plays you off oscars-style when you go too long), and another feature called "talk time" that shows how long each person spent talking at the end of each meeting. At it's core, it's a really useful meeting agenda app, so sharing it is less "hey you talk too much" and more "let's make our meetings better and more equitable". I work there & am happy to demo or answer any questions about it :) Again, really love that you made a version of this that individuals can spin up for their own accountability without the need for whole-team buy in. The design is great too!
- mulmen 4y ago
  Do you mind elaborating on why this is especially important to you as a woman in tech?
  - litttle_b 4y ago
    I'm going to do a bit of "show, don't tell" here, because if you're asking this I'm assuming you're open to learning more about the sexism and bias that typically cause men to dominate conversations in tech/workplaces: https://www.indy100.com/news/victorias-secret-model-lyndsey-scott-instagram-coder-apple-resonse-8534446 https://www.indy100.com/news/victorias-secret-model-lyndsey-... https://www.fastcompany.com/40456604/these-women-entrepreneurs-created-a-fake-male-cofounder-to-dodge-startup-sexism https://www.fastcompany.com/40456604/these-women-entrepreneu... https://hbr.org/1995/09/the-power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and-why https://hbr.org/1995/09/the-power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and... https://janicetomich.com/women-speaking-while-female/ https://janicetomich.com/women-speaking-while-female/ https://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-female-manterruptions/ https://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-femal...
    - 4y ago
throwaway9870 4y ago
I really wish a feature was added to online screen sharing that showed a pie chart of the time each participant was talking. I think it would help a lot of people who talk to much (probably myself included).
- interleave 4y ago
  Totally agreed. Should be a standard feature imho.
- leokennis 4y ago
  This would force me to contribute to useless meetings, while now I attend (look at him dutifully attending!) and in the meantime just do other work.
  - themisto 4y ago
    My favourite contributions to meetings are "Nothing to contribute that hasn't already been said". Like a breath of fresh air a light at the end of the tunnel.
  - fendy3002 4y ago
    It annoys me knowing that the indicator for good employees are those who give most ideas / contributions to a topic, while good executors with less idea for it is seen as worse. The thing is it's usually a good one that give more contributions to make their progress / workflow smoother, not the other way around.
- c0balt 4y ago
  Afaik BBB has this feature since at least last year. It shows a room admin the time each participant talked etc. While it was intended for classrooms, I.e. participation in online classes by students, it should cover the same aspect here.
- citilife 4y ago
  Let me introduce you to: https://www.read.ai/ https://www.read.ai/ Which tracks real-time talk time among everyone, but also a lot of other statistics, analytics, and transcripts. Works on meet, teams, zoom and webex. It just joins the meetings as an invitee (will automatically join any integrated calendars). So setup is nearly friction less. Actual objective is to reduce meetings when possible and improve meetings where people must attend.
waynesonfire 4y ago
You don't need an app, you just need to shut your mouth.
- appletrotter 4y ago
  You don’t need crutches, you just need to walk.
ComputerCat 4y ago
That's pretty neat. I really like how simple and concise the website you shared is! If you're screen-sharing during a meeting and have Unblah running, will the other people see it (or is it blocked for privacy the way an email notification is)?
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey ComputerCat (coolest name btw.)! – Thank you for your question. - If you're screen-sharing your whole screen then: Yes. They'll see it running. I gather, you'd rather keep it private – Can you please share why you feel that way? (Happy to do a quick call if you're more comfortable there)
actfrench 4y ago
Love the focus on personal improvement rather than changing others. I’m going to use this when I pitch investors on zoom!
- interleave 4y ago
  Yay for the focus – Far easier, sometimes, than changing others :) > I’m going to use this when I pitch investors on zoom! Much success! Tip: I would still recommend doing a dry-run since adding another signal (the timer) can lead to an unnecessary high self-awareness at first. That fades after the first-ever 10 minutes (in my experience.)
thealienthing 4y ago
I love the concept of this app. Since I’m a very social person and tend to be the opposite of a wallflower during meetings, I’m constantly asking myself “having I been talking too long” or “am I dominating this discussion” and I feel very insecure about it. My only problem is I work in an embedded software space which means almost all of my meetings are in person. I wish I had something like this on my phone so I can check my phone or smart watch during in person meetings.
- interleave 4y ago
  Thank you so much for sharing. I can relate. For in-person, maybe just tell your team that you're feeling insecure about this and would love to get their real-time feedback (?)
higgins 4y ago
have you considered open sourcing it?
mdructor 4y ago
While I do occasionally encounter people rambling on about nothingburgers in meetings, I get more irked that the status quo at my workplace is people just sit there silently, contributing nothing in medium sized (6-12 people) meetings. It just seems like nobody wants to risk saying something that might be challenged or "seem dumb", as if they are all suffering from imposter syndrome. Recently a fellow developer was doing a demo of an automated UI testing suite and how it could apply to our product, and when it came time for questions or to show any sort of interest at all, its just crickets. I feel obligated to participate in situations like these, reach for questions or at least acknowledge other's hard work, because nobody else seems to want to. For me its frustrating, I wish I were surrounded by people that are more willing to give their 2 cents, even if it means a little bit longer meeting, rather than staring at a sea of blank faces that don't bother to queue their mic for the entire meeting.
- kerblang 4y ago
  Ever try asking people questions? Like, "Bob? What do you think of this? Would you ever use it?" No need to make excuses, just do it. It's a leadership thing. Good leaders do that.
  - aloisdg 4y ago
    Could it be seen as bullying?
    - agentdrtran 4y ago
      No, unless you're only doing it to one person or being a jerk about it.
    - fruit2020 4y ago
      How so?
    - vanattab 4y ago
      Really asking a colleague his/her opinion on work related decisions is potential bullying now?
eccobay 4y ago
This type of analytics will make online meetings better in the long term, in the same way fitbit measured steps to quantify are you walking enough. A recent study (Q122) from Read highlighted (https://www.read.ai/benchmarks https://www.read.ai/benchmarks) that 28% of meetings have unbalanced participation and that 11% of participants in a meeting are in "ghost mode", no camera, no audio. The more measurement, the more opportunity for individuals and teams to improve.
dskloet 4y ago
I don't understand how it can know if you talk too much. 30 seconds can be too much if you don't have anything relevant to say but 30 minutes can be fine if you have a lot of important things to say. Does it transcribe what you say and match on bad patterns or something?
- spdustin 4y ago
  If you have thirty uninterrupted minutes of things to say, is that a meeting? Or is it a lecture/presentation? Is it better to break it up into discrete topics? Attendees of a meeting will quickly disengage if someone talks for too long. Attendees of a lecture or presentation have different expectations.
  - dskloet 4y ago
    Ok, but regardless "too much" heavily depends on context. It can't be that x minutes is the correct amount of time to talk regardless of what you are saying.
  - interleave 4y ago
    > If you have thirty uninterrupted minutes of things to say, is that a meeting? Or is it a lecture/presentation? Is it better to break it up into discrete topics? That's the key question that will frame how I schedule my attention and interjections. The reason I chose the times as seen is because they jive with my personal experience and the content of this article here: https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much
- youssefabdelm 4y ago
  I couldn't agree more with this. If one were to truly solve this problem they'd have to do several things: 1. Understand who the listener is, and what they care about. What are their reinforcers, and attractors? What are the things they want to achieve that they haven't been able to so far. What is relevant information for them? What is their state of mind? Are they tired? Do they need to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom? 2. Understand the information content of the speech. A person can say a lot in a little time or a little in a lot of time (with the dependencies being questions listed above in #1. What is a 'little' for someone might be 'a lot' for someone else depending on how much they know). My concern with an app like this is multi-fold. Firstly, I have some very smart friends who read a lot and talk for hours but I never tire of it because they're always saying something new and interesting. Secondly, sometimes these friends are working out thoughts on the fly that they haven't before. Stopping before the thought is complete risks losing hidden gems, maxims/aphorisms, well-articulated and profound crystallizations of thought. A ticking time-bomb clock adds pressure to end this line of thought that may need time to manifest itself fully. That being said I totally see the flip side, that it can go on for too long, but I'd point back to all the concerns in #1.
spdustin 4y ago
I love apps like this, but every time I see one I lament that Zoom doesn’t provide audio streams in distinct channels. Every “conversational intelligence” Zoom app seems to be forced to use speaker segmentation to identify who’s talking. I wish they had the voice version of “Jane is typing…” like text chat applications. Edit: I recognize those apps are different from yours, which is local-only, and just monitors whether YOU are speaking without plotting others’ speaking time.
frankgrecojr 4y ago
This is awesome!
reggieband 4y ago
I love this idea and I could see myself using it in 1:1 meetings with my direct reports. One of the advantages of getting older is the experience one gains. It is often the case that I can relate a current situation to one that has occurred in my past. This can help me make good decisions by anticipating expected similar outcomes to the most obvious approaches. Yet the other side of this is I can find myself droning on about old war stories to junior engineers. What I mean to be well-intentioned advice can turn into a monologue. This is especially true when I am giving advice "off-the-cuff" in response to situations brought up in 1:1 meetings with direct reports. I might struggle finding the best way to communicate my experience. This can cause me to rephrase the same idea several different ways in an attempt to clearly convey my thought. I feel this kind of tool could help me focus more on listening to the people I manage.
- interleave 4y ago
  > Yet the other side of this is I can find myself droning on about old war stories to junior engineers. Middle-aged here – I've been in that situation as well. > What I mean to be well-intentioned advice can turn into a monologue. +1 – So well-intended ("So they don't make my stupid mistakes") but hard to really take in. > I feel this kind of tool could help me focus more on listening to the people I manage. Please, if you do, let me know if it helps. Also, if those are personal 1:1 you could always just call it out and ask them to give you live feedback tech-free (?)
antipaul 4y ago
Send this to my manager, ok? 90% hog at my 1-1s
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sandreas 4y ago
Nice, thank you for the post. Maybe you could think of integrating other aspects of meeting etiquette? I once wrote an article about this[1] and from time to time, I read it again to remember the details. [1]: https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/04/tips-and-tricks-for-meetings/ https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/04/tips-and-tricks-for-meeting...
samatman 4y ago
Advising people to rat out coworkers to HR is going to damage people and doesn't reflect well on you. HR is there to protect the company. They hire and they fire, and guess which one applies here. Could you maybe offer talk to your coworker as an alternative to sending a link to your product?
christiangenco 4y ago
Oh sweet! I had a similar idea in undergrad in ~2012[1]. I love the retroactive timeline so you can see the rough balance of who was talking when—this is a really useful graph. 1. https://christian.gen.co/conversation-monitor/ https://christian.gen.co/conversation-monitor/
bredren 4y ago
Hey there, great app. By way of feedback: * The play icon with the strike through is not meaningful to me. I recommend a popover on hover to explain what this means. You probably thought about a log of different icons but might be worth polling for a few or letting the user pick one of a few a preference (At first I thought it "wasn't working") * It would be nice to be able to add meta to the session, i.e. "1:1 with joseph" that automatically gets timestamped for start and end. Then be able to show the graphs from a day of meetings stacked. * Analysis would be good. Being able to say how many others are in the meeting so it makes more sense when there are longer gaps. * Someone mentioned additional recommendations, that would be awesome if it had a guidance mode where I could fit a template over this thing and have it help keep the meeting on track. 5 mins introductions / waiting for quorum, 5 mins agenda, 10 mins topic 1 etc. I realize the idea for this is to be a simple private app and its great at that. If necessary, I'd suggest offering something more complex that might require greater buy in privacy wise so it can do more. I'd still recommend requiring zero network requests as you've done on this version, even though the analytics might be useful. I use an network filter and manually allow connections from apps. Starting with this high level of privacy is how you get someone like me to be comfortable allowing your app to run on my machine.
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey bredren. Wow. Thank YOU for putting in the effort of sharing your feedback. I agree that many of those would be helpful and likely part of a paid version at some point. > I'd still recommend requiring zero network requests as you've done on this version, even though the analytics might be useful. I know, right? It's how I wish an app behaved. The conversation we're having is a thousand-fold more _interesting_ than "312 uSeRs cLicKeD pLaY." > Starting with this high level of privacy is how you get someone like me to be comfortable allowing your app to run on my machine. I'm the same way. I had a whole FAQ guide on how to poke holes into the app. > Q: How do I know this app isn't shipping malware? > A: Me claiming it’s safe is impossible to prove to you. Instead, here’s a good book for malware analysis on macOS that you can use to poke holes into the app: https://taomm.org/vol1/read.html https://taomm.org/vol1/read.html Is that weird or should I put it in?
  - 4y ago
heisenbit 4y ago
Please release it on iOS as it can be more widely used and there is really a need for it.
blackdogie 4y ago
Love this idea. I also thing there is a great use case here for people in sales, customer support / onboarding. Listening as a skill is very important for roles like this, and anything that can help people be a bit more conscious about this is great. A top bar icon for this could also be useful, so not to take up too my screen real estate, e.g. for example if you are giving a sales demo, you may want to hide the application, but still see visually how you are doing.
- alexcnwy 4y ago
  Would definitely use this if it was a menu widget
  - interleave 4y ago
    Good call with the screen-estate during full-screen sharing. Noted and noted. Thank you!
carimura 4y ago
IIRC UberConference used to send a report after the call listing the time each participant was talking. I always found that super insightful and entertaining.
yieldcrv 4y ago
I always thought Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces should have a feature like this! Or a way for the crowd to point out that you've been talking for too long, make your phone start buzzing or something
Tempest1981 4y ago
Does the microphone pick up both you, and the remote speakers? If so, how are you differentiating? Or does the microphone automatically cancel out the sounds coming from the speakers?
hkon 4y ago
Why do you need it?
kordlessagain 4y ago
I was just checking out AssemblyAI's API today and it seems this would be a good use case for both recording what I said as well as putting a timer on me.
0xbadcafebee 4y ago
Source code? License/TOS?
BubbleRings 4y ago
Wow, love it. I think i described this exact app to a friend about a week ago. I'm so impressed! And look at what a great conversation you generated here. Here's a bit of language that a good friend told to me, maybe you could use it somehow in your marketing or documentation: "When you are talking with people in a group, look around the circle and do the math. For instance, if there are three people, and you are talking more than 1/3 of the time, then you are a bore."
- interleave 4y ago
  > And look at what a great conversation you generated here. Totally, that's been the best part of sharing it. I think conversation around "communication hygiene" is valuable for everyone. > "When you are talking with people in a group, look around the circle and do the math. For instance, if there are three people, and you are talking more than 1/3 of the time, then you are a bore." Being "a bore." Interesting choice of words, thank you for sharing! This reminds me of a quote that I've always loved > "I never learned anything while I was talking.” – Larry King
fire 4y ago
This looks kind of great? I'd love to see a Windows version.
ultrasounder 4y ago
Definitely gonna give this a try! Feature request can you make this into a teams integration so that we can all keep tabs on how long every other participant is hogging the meeting. This is a BIG feature request and I am not savvy enough to make a teams integration. Perhaps you can?
- interleave 4y ago
  Hey ultrasounder! First off, even if it's a big request, I very much appreciate your input. Thank you. > "...so that we can all keep tabs on how long every other participant is hogging the meeting" The idea of "Unblah for teams" has come up in here and it seems like an obvious idea – it did to me. I'm starting to doubt that adding this accountability-layer top-down is a good idea. Honestly, I wouldn't want that myself as a team-member. It's a very personal quest to grow and change. And so funnily enough: Before launching, I had doubted making the app so ultra-local, native and stand-alone. Now I'm realizing that may be one of its strengths! What do you think?
la64710 4y ago
Another idea which I dare say has been already solved. Just hit a timer button as soon as you start talking.
alsetmusic 4y ago
Awesome that you built something that helps you and you’re sharing it.
- interleave 4y ago
  You go it!
georgeecollins 4y ago
I would buy this for Windows.
perryizgr8 4y ago
It doesn't work without headphones. I never use headphones in meetings ): It says this is needed so it doesn't trigger for other people speaking. I feel this should be doable by isolating the mic stream and stereo mix in software.
ggm 4y ago
No cmd, settings pane. How do I tune how much is too much? its culturally informed. What If I want a warning in 10sec not 30sec?
bdougherty 4y ago
You should either change “ (like myself)” to the proper “(like me)” or just remove it entirely from the website. It also seems like the app did not help when recording the demo video. It should be much shorter than two minutes.
- scotty79 4y ago
  And in more than two minutes I didn't learn what this app does. What do the colors mean, what's the button for, what's the colorful bar at the bottom, how fast the circular indicator is going around.
marclou 4y ago
[dead]
browneyedgirl 4y ago
I love how you highlighted that this shouldn't be a proxy for a difficult conversation, and included a book recommendation.
- interleave 4y ago
  I thought so too. We're all adults here. I did add a recommendation to "lead by example" – which is something within the immediate control of the person asking the question. What do you think about that?
exodust 4y ago
It could backfire too in that it causes people to stop talking because an artificial timer is in the red. Or cause people to start talking about nothing if the app indicates they've been too quiet. I prefer the organic method. The natural variations of life and people. The best "app" to moderate your own conversation skills, is the one between your ears. My mother talks too much because she strings unrelated stories together back to back without pausing. She could fix this by simply pausing at the end of one story, allowing others to chime in. She doesn't need an app to do that. Sometimes people take longer to reach their point. Or sometimes in meetings we are trying to solve problems, or understand background info which one person might focus on, while others listen. It's a slippery slope to involve artificial timers when not everyone in meeting may have equal amounts to share.
waynesoftware 4y ago
Thank you for creating this! I have been looking for something that does this for quite a while. I have been using poised (https://www.poised.com/ https://www.poised.com/) for this as it does it and related things...but have backed off on it since they went from free to paid (though is still may pay for it).
tpoacher 4y ago
Zoom should have an indicator like this under each participant's video.
njacobs5074 4y ago
This is a great idea. Any chance you can back port it to older versions of macOS? My laptop is running Big Sur (11.6.7) and I see it requires Monterey (12.3+).

451 points by interleave 4y ago

obaid 4y ago

This is pretty neat. I am going to use it to monitor myself during the calls. I am curious about the tech behind this. Speaker identification locally on the machine seems like what's happening here. The nerd in me wants more tech deep dive :)

interleave 4y ago
Let me know how it goes – Would love to hear your experience. It's a small but solid ML model that I've been working on. And I've got a 'headphones'-free feature on my personal roadmap, too!

twald 4y ago

Thanks for sharing! Do you plan to add this to the menu bar in the future?

interleave 4y ago
Hey there, you're very welcome. I hadn't thought of the menu bar yet. How would you want that to work?
sent-hil 4y ago
Second that for a menu bar. Something to quickly glance up to see if I'm talking too much. PS, just downloaded, looks promising! Will try it and let you know.
- interleave 4y ago
  Cool, thanks for giving it a spin, too! If there are any issues with the installation/set up, please let me know. Happy to jump on a call as well (See the contact button on the site)

DennisMaHa 4y ago

Sounds like a great idea. Just an idea for another feature: a word counter. I tend to often use words like "um" when I'm nervous. Good look on your product :)

gardenhedge 4y ago

I wish behaviour like this was weeded out in the interview process. It is really damaging to teams and productivity and I would estimate most people won't try to fix it like OP has tried.

interleave 4y ago
Interesting perspective. I can only speak for myself of course: The issue only happens in online meetings and probably only with specific teams. So, I would have "slipped through", if your interview process is in-person. It starts with the awareness in my opinion. There are people who talk a lot and enjoy dominating the conversation. I wrote an extensive FAQ on why Unblah is not for them. Those who (like me) talk a lot but are painfully aware – I think aren't extremely damaging. I hope.
- powerhour 4y ago
  It's probably more common as the person becomes more familiar with the group -- at least it is for me. That'll make it hard or impossible to identify during interviews. I've been trying not to speak at all during meetings, instead following up in chat. As a bonus, this means there's a searchable record of the details, and thus is far more valuable than any in person or video meeting could ever be.
  - interleave 4y ago
    > It's probably more common as the person becomes more familiar with the group -- at least it is for me. That'll make it hard or impossible to identify during interviews. Agreed. > I've been trying not to speak at all during meetings, instead following up in chat. How does that work? I mean, interpersonally?
    - powerhour 4y ago
      I've always been on small teams so I think it works ok, but I guess it could be an unfair burden for my coworkers. Maybe I should ask.

hamaluik 4y ago

Unfortunately I think I have the exact opposite problem (don't talk enough) but awesome work! And thank you for making and clarifying that it is private and 100% on device. More tools need to be like this!

interleave 4y ago
Hey there! I empathize that not talking enough is just as difficult. I have had this on my radar as well and, in a way, you can totally use it to track your non-speaking as well. Here's an idea: What if there was a toggle for your scenario and the count-down of "other people talking" started when you're silent. The colors on timeline would be inverted, you'd see your "airtime" as a few gray dots. What do you think? Would this be helpful?
- hamaluik 4y ago
  I think it could be, but without trying it I'd hesitate to say spend a bunch of time and energy implementing it. I also can't really help you as I don't have a mac to run it on.

dingleberry420 4y ago

gnicholas 4y ago
It’s a Show HN, which means it’s the first version. There is no reason to expect it won’t be on other platforms later.

xfalcox 4y ago

I really need this for Linux. Sometime I get carried away...

interleave 4y ago
Damn, I'm very sorry – I can't deliver that at this moment.
aloisdg 4y ago
Same here. I am the kind of person who can get lost in a monologue tunnel quite easily.
acidburnNSA 4y ago
Might be relatively easy. I dont think you need to classify anything in the sense of speech diarization; just gotta check mike levels and do some stats to estimate starting and stopping. Time to learn linux audio apis I guess.

_gmnw 4y ago

How can I share this with a coworker without being rude haha?

interleave 4y ago
Totally understand. It's the most common question I've gotten for those who themselves experience 'the blah' by someone else. I published an FAQ (https://unblah.me/#faqs https://unblah.me/#faqs) earlier today. Posting it here for simplicity: --- Question: I have this person on my team who talks WAY too much and never notices it. They LOVE hearing themselves talk and never shut up. Should I tell them to get this app? --- Answer: First off... I believe your struggle with this person is 100% real. I fully believe their behavior is affecting you negatively. But, my answer is a STRONG NO. Please don’t use Unblah as a proxy for a difficult conversation that sounds like it needs to be had. Think about it: They would never use it anyways, because, as you’re saying yourself “...and never even notice it.”. They don't have a problem. You do. I don't know how much rapport you two have, how much safe space you can create for resolving this situation, etc. So, to keep everyone safe, please check with HR or leadership on how to best deal with this situation if it impacts you, your team and your performance. For learning more on this kind of topic, I can recommend “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” by Bruce Patton, Douglas Stone, and Sheila Heen.
- frogpelt 4y ago
  This sounds like a possible next step for your app: “unblah” for teams.
  - interleave 4y ago
    Yes, has been on my radar for exactly that reason. I want to believe there is a wetware solution in there somewhere :)
interleave 4y ago
And: You can always lead by example!

themisto 4y ago

Love it. Simple and effective UI. In the past I've had the opposite problem occasionally where I think I'm taking up much more time than I am (a consequence of nervousness maybe) and this would be helpful for that too -- not just an indicator for when you talk too long, but also when for when you are still "in the green" to combat that nervousness induced timewarp.

interleave 4y ago
Ohhhhh... Right. Just to mirror what I understand: You have experienced that, while talking, you thought "Oh, I've been talking for hours already. I should stop now." but in reality you haven't even scratched the, let's say, 30 second mark? Absolutely relevant – I hadn't even thought of that possibility. I'm actually thinking, the whole app could stay the same, just swap the green/red colors (?)
- themisto 4y ago
  Yeah exactly! Thinking back, the time's I've felt this the most is during stressful interviews -- e.g. I'm asked a difficult question and part way through my answer my nerves say "You've been talking for ages, you've lost them" but in reality it's been a perfectly reasonable amount of time and if I listen to my nerves I risk cutting the answer short. I'd actually love a tool like this for interviews -- if had a mac or there was a linux build I'd definitely use this. Re: Colours -- If I were to use this for this use-case (next time work gives me a mac perhaps) I think the current green -> red arrangement is fine as-is, as it covers both use-cases (if red -> too long; if green -> still have time)
  - interleave 4y ago
    Thank you for sharing – I just spoke with my girlfriend who described the exact same thing. I had no idea. > if had a mac or there was a linux build I'd definitely use this. while I don't have resources now for a Linux build, where would I start in terms of window systems/dekstop environment (I don't even know if those are still the right terms – My last desktop box was running debian/sarge)

irrational 4y ago

I have the opposite problem. According to my reviews, everyone likes me and I do great work. The only ding against me is that I never talk. I can go weeks without uttering a word in total comfort.

anonu 4y ago
Maybe you should ask your colleagues to install this app?
- pimlottc 4y ago
  As the page itself suggests, perhaps they should just talk about the issue with their colleagues first.
lulzury 4y ago
It is hard to join when it feels like interrupting, and you might not want to do that due to differences in culture and/or personality. However, you have to consider joining in the conversation and sharing your thoughts. I noticed people can start making assumptions or making decisions for you, which is not fun.
selykg 4y ago
The app could be used for that. It does work in the opposite, the lack of talking is shown in the chart as well. Not to say you need to arbitrarily start talking but, if this is something people ask you to do more and you're generally okay with it, then this could possibly help.
tvanantwerp 4y ago
I've been getting this feedback since grade school, and I'm still getting it now in my 30's. It's an extroverts' world and I just live in it...

ghostbrainalpha 4y ago

Could we turn this app into wearable tech so that it can be used IRL for dating?

d3sandoval 4y ago

I'm going to use this for user interviews since I have a hard time talking too much during the introduction. Also, stand-ups...

interleave 4y ago
Hope it helps you, ping me if you need anything. PS: The "introductions" are my personal Kryptonite.

gscho 4y ago

Wanted to let you know HTTP requests are not automatically redirected to HTTPS. Love the idea for this, will be trying it out!

interleave 4y ago
Hey gscho – Thank you so much for letting me know, have NO idea how that http:// http:// got in there (?) Please don't tell me you're getting a browser error after the click (?) Do you know who/how can help me update that title?
- gscho 4y ago
  Not sure how you’re hosting the site but the best way to fix this would be to have your web server automatically redirect incoming http traffic to https. Then it doesn’t matter if the link is http or https :)
  - interleave 4y ago
    I forgot to set the 'Enforce SSL' in the Github pages preferences. Updated this morning X)

rubslopes 4y ago

If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to the realization that you talk too much? Did your colleagues tell you that, or did you figured it out by yourself?

interleave 4y ago
Hi rubslopes, good question. As a neurodiverse person, I've been acutely aware of my impact on conversations for the last two years (since diagnosis). And I guess I just started noticing when I 'flew off the rails' and think to myself "Ohhh... Shit. I just 'lost' everyone." And how embarrassed that made me feel. Then I read this article https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much which gave me some guidance and vocabulary that I didn't have until then. Then I started keeping tabs on my 'airtime' and I decided I had to build a simple feedback loop. Does this answer your question?
- rubslopes 4y ago
  Yes, it does! Thank you.

bncy 4y ago

While it's not a bit problem for me, I've got a friend who really needs help with breaking his own monologs, so I'm sending him that

interleave 4y ago
Bold. Please keep me/us in here updated!

litttle_b 4y ago

I especially appreciate seeing this kind of tool + level of self awareness, as a woman working in tech. For everyone here who's asking how to get their coworkers using something like this, there's a similar feature in Sesh (web app https://sesh.com/ https://sesh.com/ and zoom app https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/lmZj36WWSJut8-hAaUJrhQ https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/lmZj36WWSJut8-hAaUJrhQ ) that gives everyone equal opportunities to speak (and plays you off oscars-style when you go too long), and another feature called "talk time" that shows how long each person spent talking at the end of each meeting. At it's core, it's a really useful meeting agenda app, so sharing it is less "hey you talk too much" and more "let's make our meetings better and more equitable". I work there & am happy to demo or answer any questions about it :) Again, really love that you made a version of this that individuals can spin up for their own accountability without the need for whole-team buy in. The design is great too!

mulmen 4y ago
Do you mind elaborating on why this is especially important to you as a woman in tech?
- litttle_b 4y ago
  I'm going to do a bit of "show, don't tell" here, because if you're asking this I'm assuming you're open to learning more about the sexism and bias that typically cause men to dominate conversations in tech/workplaces: https://www.indy100.com/news/victorias-secret-model-lyndsey-scott-instagram-coder-apple-resonse-8534446 https://www.indy100.com/news/victorias-secret-model-lyndsey-... https://www.fastcompany.com/40456604/these-women-entrepreneurs-created-a-fake-male-cofounder-to-dodge-startup-sexism https://www.fastcompany.com/40456604/these-women-entrepreneu... https://hbr.org/1995/09/the-power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and-why https://hbr.org/1995/09/the-power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and... https://janicetomich.com/women-speaking-while-female/ https://janicetomich.com/women-speaking-while-female/ https://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-female-manterruptions/ https://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-femal...
  - 4y ago

throwaway9870 4y ago

I really wish a feature was added to online screen sharing that showed a pie chart of the time each participant was talking. I think it would help a lot of people who talk to much (probably myself included).

interleave 4y ago
Totally agreed. Should be a standard feature imho.
leokennis 4y ago
This would force me to contribute to useless meetings, while now I attend (look at him dutifully attending!) and in the meantime just do other work.
- themisto 4y ago
  My favourite contributions to meetings are "Nothing to contribute that hasn't already been said". Like a breath of fresh air a light at the end of the tunnel.
- fendy3002 4y ago
  It annoys me knowing that the indicator for good employees are those who give most ideas / contributions to a topic, while good executors with less idea for it is seen as worse. The thing is it's usually a good one that give more contributions to make their progress / workflow smoother, not the other way around.
c0balt 4y ago
Afaik BBB has this feature since at least last year. It shows a room admin the time each participant talked etc. While it was intended for classrooms, I.e. participation in online classes by students, it should cover the same aspect here.
citilife 4y ago
Let me introduce you to: https://www.read.ai/ https://www.read.ai/ Which tracks real-time talk time among everyone, but also a lot of other statistics, analytics, and transcripts. Works on meet, teams, zoom and webex. It just joins the meetings as an invitee (will automatically join any integrated calendars). So setup is nearly friction less. Actual objective is to reduce meetings when possible and improve meetings where people must attend.

waynesonfire 4y ago

You don't need an app, you just need to shut your mouth.

appletrotter 4y ago
You don’t need crutches, you just need to walk.

ComputerCat 4y ago

That's pretty neat. I really like how simple and concise the website you shared is! If you're screen-sharing during a meeting and have Unblah running, will the other people see it (or is it blocked for privacy the way an email notification is)?

interleave 4y ago
Hey ComputerCat (coolest name btw.)! – Thank you for your question. - If you're screen-sharing your whole screen then: Yes. They'll see it running. I gather, you'd rather keep it private – Can you please share why you feel that way? (Happy to do a quick call if you're more comfortable there)

actfrench 4y ago

Love the focus on personal improvement rather than changing others. I’m going to use this when I pitch investors on zoom!

interleave 4y ago
Yay for the focus – Far easier, sometimes, than changing others :) > I’m going to use this when I pitch investors on zoom! Much success! Tip: I would still recommend doing a dry-run since adding another signal (the timer) can lead to an unnecessary high self-awareness at first. That fades after the first-ever 10 minutes (in my experience.)

thealienthing 4y ago

I love the concept of this app. Since I’m a very social person and tend to be the opposite of a wallflower during meetings, I’m constantly asking myself “having I been talking too long” or “am I dominating this discussion” and I feel very insecure about it. My only problem is I work in an embedded software space which means almost all of my meetings are in person. I wish I had something like this on my phone so I can check my phone or smart watch during in person meetings.

interleave 4y ago
Thank you so much for sharing. I can relate. For in-person, maybe just tell your team that you're feeling insecure about this and would love to get their real-time feedback (?)

higgins 4y ago

have you considered open sourcing it?

mdructor 4y ago

While I do occasionally encounter people rambling on about nothingburgers in meetings, I get more irked that the status quo at my workplace is people just sit there silently, contributing nothing in medium sized (6-12 people) meetings. It just seems like nobody wants to risk saying something that might be challenged or "seem dumb", as if they are all suffering from imposter syndrome. Recently a fellow developer was doing a demo of an automated UI testing suite and how it could apply to our product, and when it came time for questions or to show any sort of interest at all, its just crickets. I feel obligated to participate in situations like these, reach for questions or at least acknowledge other's hard work, because nobody else seems to want to. For me its frustrating, I wish I were surrounded by people that are more willing to give their 2 cents, even if it means a little bit longer meeting, rather than staring at a sea of blank faces that don't bother to queue their mic for the entire meeting.

kerblang 4y ago
Ever try asking people questions? Like, "Bob? What do you think of this? Would you ever use it?" No need to make excuses, just do it. It's a leadership thing. Good leaders do that.
- aloisdg 4y ago
  Could it be seen as bullying?
  - agentdrtran 4y ago
    No, unless you're only doing it to one person or being a jerk about it.
  - fruit2020 4y ago
    How so?
  - vanattab 4y ago
    Really asking a colleague his/her opinion on work related decisions is potential bullying now?

eccobay 4y ago

This type of analytics will make online meetings better in the long term, in the same way fitbit measured steps to quantify are you walking enough. A recent study (Q122) from Read highlighted (https://www.read.ai/benchmarks https://www.read.ai/benchmarks) that 28% of meetings have unbalanced participation and that 11% of participants in a meeting are in "ghost mode", no camera, no audio. The more measurement, the more opportunity for individuals and teams to improve.

dskloet 4y ago

I don't understand how it can know if you talk too much. 30 seconds can be too much if you don't have anything relevant to say but 30 minutes can be fine if you have a lot of important things to say. Does it transcribe what you say and match on bad patterns or something?

spdustin 4y ago
If you have thirty uninterrupted minutes of things to say, is that a meeting? Or is it a lecture/presentation? Is it better to break it up into discrete topics? Attendees of a meeting will quickly disengage if someone talks for too long. Attendees of a lecture or presentation have different expectations.
- dskloet 4y ago
  Ok, but regardless "too much" heavily depends on context. It can't be that x minutes is the correct amount of time to talk regardless of what you are saying.
- interleave 4y ago
  > If you have thirty uninterrupted minutes of things to say, is that a meeting? Or is it a lecture/presentation? Is it better to break it up into discrete topics? That's the key question that will frame how I schedule my attention and interjections. The reason I chose the times as seen is because they jive with my personal experience and the content of this article here: https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much
youssefabdelm 4y ago
I couldn't agree more with this. If one were to truly solve this problem they'd have to do several things: 1. Understand who the listener is, and what they care about. What are their reinforcers, and attractors? What are the things they want to achieve that they haven't been able to so far. What is relevant information for them? What is their state of mind? Are they tired? Do they need to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom? 2. Understand the information content of the speech. A person can say a lot in a little time or a little in a lot of time (with the dependencies being questions listed above in #1. What is a 'little' for someone might be 'a lot' for someone else depending on how much they know). My concern with an app like this is multi-fold. Firstly, I have some very smart friends who read a lot and talk for hours but I never tire of it because they're always saying something new and interesting. Secondly, sometimes these friends are working out thoughts on the fly that they haven't before. Stopping before the thought is complete risks losing hidden gems, maxims/aphorisms, well-articulated and profound crystallizations of thought. A ticking time-bomb clock adds pressure to end this line of thought that may need time to manifest itself fully. That being said I totally see the flip side, that it can go on for too long, but I'd point back to all the concerns in #1.

spdustin 4y ago

I love apps like this, but every time I see one I lament that Zoom doesn’t provide audio streams in distinct channels. Every “conversational intelligence” Zoom app seems to be forced to use speaker segmentation to identify who’s talking. I wish they had the voice version of “Jane is typing…” like text chat applications. Edit: I recognize those apps are different from yours, which is local-only, and just monitors whether YOU are speaking without plotting others’ speaking time.

frankgrecojr 4y ago

This is awesome!

reggieband 4y ago

I love this idea and I could see myself using it in 1:1 meetings with my direct reports. One of the advantages of getting older is the experience one gains. It is often the case that I can relate a current situation to one that has occurred in my past. This can help me make good decisions by anticipating expected similar outcomes to the most obvious approaches. Yet the other side of this is I can find myself droning on about old war stories to junior engineers. What I mean to be well-intentioned advice can turn into a monologue. This is especially true when I am giving advice "off-the-cuff" in response to situations brought up in 1:1 meetings with direct reports. I might struggle finding the best way to communicate my experience. This can cause me to rephrase the same idea several different ways in an attempt to clearly convey my thought. I feel this kind of tool could help me focus more on listening to the people I manage.

interleave 4y ago
> Yet the other side of this is I can find myself droning on about old war stories to junior engineers. Middle-aged here – I've been in that situation as well. > What I mean to be well-intentioned advice can turn into a monologue. +1 – So well-intended ("So they don't make my stupid mistakes") but hard to really take in. > I feel this kind of tool could help me focus more on listening to the people I manage. Please, if you do, let me know if it helps. Also, if those are personal 1:1 you could always just call it out and ask them to give you live feedback tech-free (?)

antipaul 4y ago

Send this to my manager, ok? 90% hog at my 1-1s

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

sandreas 4y ago

Nice, thank you for the post. Maybe you could think of integrating other aspects of meeting etiquette? I once wrote an article about this[1] and from time to time, I read it again to remember the details. [1]: https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/04/tips-and-tricks-for-meetings/ https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/04/tips-and-tricks-for-meeting...

samatman 4y ago

Advising people to rat out coworkers to HR is going to damage people and doesn't reflect well on you. HR is there to protect the company. They hire and they fire, and guess which one applies here. Could you maybe offer talk to your coworker as an alternative to sending a link to your product?

christiangenco 4y ago

Oh sweet! I had a similar idea in undergrad in ~2012[1]. I love the retroactive timeline so you can see the rough balance of who was talking when—this is a really useful graph. 1. https://christian.gen.co/conversation-monitor/ https://christian.gen.co/conversation-monitor/

bredren 4y ago

Hey there, great app. By way of feedback: * The play icon with the strike through is not meaningful to me. I recommend a popover on hover to explain what this means. You probably thought about a log of different icons but might be worth polling for a few or letting the user pick one of a few a preference (At first I thought it "wasn't working") * It would be nice to be able to add meta to the session, i.e. "1:1 with joseph" that automatically gets timestamped for start and end. Then be able to show the graphs from a day of meetings stacked. * Analysis would be good. Being able to say how many others are in the meeting so it makes more sense when there are longer gaps. * Someone mentioned additional recommendations, that would be awesome if it had a guidance mode where I could fit a template over this thing and have it help keep the meeting on track. 5 mins introductions / waiting for quorum, 5 mins agenda, 10 mins topic 1 etc. I realize the idea for this is to be a simple private app and its great at that. If necessary, I'd suggest offering something more complex that might require greater buy in privacy wise so it can do more. I'd still recommend requiring zero network requests as you've done on this version, even though the analytics might be useful. I use an network filter and manually allow connections from apps. Starting with this high level of privacy is how you get someone like me to be comfortable allowing your app to run on my machine.

interleave 4y ago
Hey bredren. Wow. Thank YOU for putting in the effort of sharing your feedback. I agree that many of those would be helpful and likely part of a paid version at some point. > I'd still recommend requiring zero network requests as you've done on this version, even though the analytics might be useful. I know, right? It's how I wish an app behaved. The conversation we're having is a thousand-fold more _interesting_ than "312 uSeRs cLicKeD pLaY." > Starting with this high level of privacy is how you get someone like me to be comfortable allowing your app to run on my machine. I'm the same way. I had a whole FAQ guide on how to poke holes into the app. > Q: How do I know this app isn't shipping malware? > A: Me claiming it’s safe is impossible to prove to you. Instead, here’s a good book for malware analysis on macOS that you can use to poke holes into the app: https://taomm.org/vol1/read.html https://taomm.org/vol1/read.html Is that weird or should I put it in?
- 4y ago

heisenbit 4y ago

Please release it on iOS as it can be more widely used and there is really a need for it.

blackdogie 4y ago

Love this idea. I also thing there is a great use case here for people in sales, customer support / onboarding. Listening as a skill is very important for roles like this, and anything that can help people be a bit more conscious about this is great. A top bar icon for this could also be useful, so not to take up too my screen real estate, e.g. for example if you are giving a sales demo, you may want to hide the application, but still see visually how you are doing.

alexcnwy 4y ago
Would definitely use this if it was a menu widget
- interleave 4y ago
  Good call with the screen-estate during full-screen sharing. Noted and noted. Thank you!

carimura 4y ago

IIRC UberConference used to send a report after the call listing the time each participant was talking. I always found that super insightful and entertaining.

yieldcrv 4y ago

I always thought Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces should have a feature like this! Or a way for the crowd to point out that you've been talking for too long, make your phone start buzzing or something

Tempest1981 4y ago

Does the microphone pick up both you, and the remote speakers? If so, how are you differentiating? Or does the microphone automatically cancel out the sounds coming from the speakers?

hkon 4y ago

Why do you need it?

kordlessagain 4y ago

I was just checking out AssemblyAI's API today and it seems this would be a good use case for both recording what I said as well as putting a timer on me.

0xbadcafebee 4y ago

Source code? License/TOS?

BubbleRings 4y ago

Wow, love it. I think i described this exact app to a friend about a week ago. I'm so impressed! And look at what a great conversation you generated here. Here's a bit of language that a good friend told to me, maybe you could use it somehow in your marketing or documentation: "When you are talking with people in a group, look around the circle and do the math. For instance, if there are three people, and you are talking more than 1/3 of the time, then you are a bore."

interleave 4y ago
> And look at what a great conversation you generated here. Totally, that's been the best part of sharing it. I think conversation around "communication hygiene" is valuable for everyone. > "When you are talking with people in a group, look around the circle and do the math. For instance, if there are three people, and you are talking more than 1/3 of the time, then you are a bore." Being "a bore." Interesting choice of words, thank you for sharing! This reminds me of a quote that I've always loved > "I never learned anything while I was talking.” – Larry King

fire 4y ago

This looks kind of great? I'd love to see a Windows version.

ultrasounder 4y ago

Definitely gonna give this a try! Feature request can you make this into a teams integration so that we can all keep tabs on how long every other participant is hogging the meeting. This is a BIG feature request and I am not savvy enough to make a teams integration. Perhaps you can?

interleave 4y ago
Hey ultrasounder! First off, even if it's a big request, I very much appreciate your input. Thank you. > "...so that we can all keep tabs on how long every other participant is hogging the meeting" The idea of "Unblah for teams" has come up in here and it seems like an obvious idea – it did to me. I'm starting to doubt that adding this accountability-layer top-down is a good idea. Honestly, I wouldn't want that myself as a team-member. It's a very personal quest to grow and change. And so funnily enough: Before launching, I had doubted making the app so ultra-local, native and stand-alone. Now I'm realizing that may be one of its strengths! What do you think?

la64710 4y ago

Another idea which I dare say has been already solved. Just hit a timer button as soon as you start talking.

alsetmusic 4y ago

Awesome that you built something that helps you and you’re sharing it.

interleave 4y ago
You go it!

georgeecollins 4y ago

I would buy this for Windows.

perryizgr8 4y ago

It doesn't work without headphones. I never use headphones in meetings ): It says this is needed so it doesn't trigger for other people speaking. I feel this should be doable by isolating the mic stream and stereo mix in software.

ggm 4y ago

No cmd, settings pane. How do I tune how much is too much? its culturally informed. What If I want a warning in 10sec not 30sec?

bdougherty 4y ago

You should either change “ (like myself)” to the proper “(like me)” or just remove it entirely from the website. It also seems like the app did not help when recording the demo video. It should be much shorter than two minutes.

scotty79 4y ago
And in more than two minutes I didn't learn what this app does. What do the colors mean, what's the button for, what's the colorful bar at the bottom, how fast the circular indicator is going around.

marclou 4y ago

[dead]

browneyedgirl 4y ago

I love how you highlighted that this shouldn't be a proxy for a difficult conversation, and included a book recommendation.

interleave 4y ago
I thought so too. We're all adults here. I did add a recommendation to "lead by example" – which is something within the immediate control of the person asking the question. What do you think about that?

exodust 4y ago

It could backfire too in that it causes people to stop talking because an artificial timer is in the red. Or cause people to start talking about nothing if the app indicates they've been too quiet. I prefer the organic method. The natural variations of life and people. The best "app" to moderate your own conversation skills, is the one between your ears. My mother talks too much because she strings unrelated stories together back to back without pausing. She could fix this by simply pausing at the end of one story, allowing others to chime in. She doesn't need an app to do that. Sometimes people take longer to reach their point. Or sometimes in meetings we are trying to solve problems, or understand background info which one person might focus on, while others listen. It's a slippery slope to involve artificial timers when not everyone in meeting may have equal amounts to share.

waynesoftware 4y ago

Thank you for creating this! I have been looking for something that does this for quite a while. I have been using poised (https://www.poised.com/ https://www.poised.com/) for this as it does it and related things...but have backed off on it since they went from free to paid (though is still may pay for it).

tpoacher 4y ago

Zoom should have an indicator like this under each participant's video.

njacobs5074 4y ago

This is a great idea. Any chance you can back port it to older versions of macOS? My laptop is running Big Sur (11.6.7) and I see it requires Monterey (12.3+).