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I would think everyone is against bad meetings, no? Is there anyone out there arguing in favor of more BS meetings? I assume not. People who advocate for the p

I would think everyone is against bad meetings, no? Is there anyone out there arguing in favor of more BS meetings? I assume not. People who advocate for the purpose and value of specific meetings do so because they believe they are good meetings. Of course they are not all right! There are some teams for which a daily standup would be a BS meeting - for them it would be bad; and there are other teams who find a daily standup is the perfect sync-up and planning corrective they need to maximize productivity - for them, it is a good meeting. So people who say ‘daily standups can be a helpful kind of meeting for some teams’ are not advocating for the bad meetings the first team would end up having. Nobody anywhere is making the claim ‘all meetings are good’. But on the other hand I do hear people saying ‘All meetings are bad’. And that seems to me to be trivially disprovable. I do understand people having a strong prior that a proposed meeting is probably bad. I understand setting a high bar for agreeing to participate in meetings. But the heuristic of ‘never meet ever’ seems like a poor one.

drewcoo 4y ago
> I would think everyone is against bad meetings, no? No. If agenda-less meetings are bad and we know that those they exist, then someone, that dastardly fiend, must not be against bad meetings! > I do hear people saying ‘All meetings are bad’ They're pushing for change. It works a lot like haggling. If you ask for what you want, some well-meaning person will call for compromise and "meeting in the middle" and you won't get what you want. So ask for more.
- danaris 4y ago
  > > I do hear people saying ‘All meetings are bad’ >They're pushing for change. It works a lot like haggling It's also people who have never experienced a good meeting, either because they haven't been in the industry long or because they've been somewhat unlucky. It's also people who may have had some good meetings, but they are so far outweighed by the bad that even when they end up in a good meeting, the bad ones are coloring their experience so much they're unable to engage productively, and so nowadays all meetings feel like bad meetings. It's also people who started out by saying "these meetings are bad meetings," and being dismissed, then saying "some meetings are bad meetings" and being ignored, and now are saying "all meetings are bad meetings" because they're just fed up and using hyperbole to try to get their point across to people whose paychecks depend on them not understanding.

drewcoo 4y ago

> I would think everyone is against bad meetings, no? No. If agenda-less meetings are bad and we know that those they exist, then someone, that dastardly fiend, must not be against bad meetings! > I do hear people saying ‘All meetings are bad’ They're pushing for change. It works a lot like haggling. If you ask for what you want, some well-meaning person will call for compromise and "meeting in the middle" and you won't get what you want. So ask for more.

danaris 4y ago
> > I do hear people saying ‘All meetings are bad’ >They're pushing for change. It works a lot like haggling It's also people who have never experienced a good meeting, either because they haven't been in the industry long or because they've been somewhat unlucky. It's also people who may have had some good meetings, but they are so far outweighed by the bad that even when they end up in a good meeting, the bad ones are coloring their experience so much they're unable to engage productively, and so nowadays all meetings feel like bad meetings. It's also people who started out by saying "these meetings are bad meetings," and being dismissed, then saying "some meetings are bad meetings" and being ignored, and now are saying "all meetings are bad meetings" because they're just fed up and using hyperbole to try to get their point across to people whose paychecks depend on them not understanding.