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Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

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Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#201

Post by gamma3 »

beat wrote: post #83

It's not just Slack. It's our phones! Notifications are distraction engines. At the beginning of March, I went cold turkey on most social media (I still allow myself HN and a guitar player's forum), and completely cold turkey on using my phone for these things - I have to use an actual computer. I put Kindle where Facebook used to be on my phone, and always have a book on it that can be read in small bites for those…

I've done the same - replace social media with Kindle. It's so good.

And lock screen notifications are off for all apps. I only see a notification badge when I decide to pick up and unlock my phone.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#202

Post by gamma3 »

bitwize wrote: post #145

It is a truth universally acknowledged among managerial types, that given enough collaboration, all work becomes shallow. To that end, the business will increase the number of collaborative tools and the expectation of their use, because deep work presents a problem. It is a risk incurred by the business. Creative effort by an individual is not auditable, there's no paper trail. No actionable data -- data that would…

I've worked at a company that did the sprints, planning, retro, Three Amigos etc.

So glad we don't do any of that at my new company! And it turns out we ship stuff much faster.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#203

Post by megaremote »

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #126
protonimitate wrote: post #28

I'll play devils advocate. I like Slack, and having a group communication tool has only increased my productivity. How? - Having a place to easily search for issues others have had in the past. Sure, you can search emails or ask the same questions, but it's nice to search and find answers from other peoples conversations. - Integration for production alerting, customer feedback, and deployment pipelines. Instead of m…

I agree Slack can be used effectively, but I don’t think its design encourages it. It encourages massive distraction — more active user time — by its default client and organization level settings. Nor do I think this is as simple as “you can simply exit the program.” If the company or team has certain expectations on communication that won’t work if you do it without consulting with your team. A lot of people are no…

> Imagine ignoring calls or emails from your boss for a day or two when it’s clear that boss expects responses in a specific time?

Then slack makes no difference then, you might as well blame emails or the phone company.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#204

Post by gamma3 »

wool_gather wrote: post #144
jackpeterfletch wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I think the crux here, is that the below, in my opinion, is a purely perceived pressure. You shoulden't feel pressured to read everything in Slack. > Reduced pressure to read everything. Let’s face it, it’s not practical or necessary to keep up with every conversation. The aggregated timeline in Level lets you subscribe to channels and sip from the firehose of conversations without pressuring you to “catch up” on…

The fear of missing something is real. I have seen decisions taken in Slack by two or three of the four or five people who should have been involved. I'm not saying this is caused by Slack -- the problem is absolutely with the people who thought it was okay to act on such a decision. But I do think it's facilitated ; the people involved seem to subconsciously think that because they're discussing in a public channel…

They should cc you so you get a notification. Or talk to you on person.

They shouldn't assume everyone will read every message. If it's important, they should make sure you definitely saw it.

If you ever feel like you missed and important decision, go and politely tell them to always get you involved.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#205

Post by Funes- »

The mental and logistical acrobatics being proposed by users on this comment section only shows one thing about Slack (and any other app that is built on the optimization of an "engagement" metric): If you have to go that far to prevent something from easily taking all your attention and time, wouldn't you argue that it is, in fact, its design which is flawed, and not its users?

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#206

Post by IggleSniggle »

Jedd wrote: post #39
shubhamjain wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this can be taken as an argument against the post's premise. Could there be any e-communication tool more asynchronous than email? (Except for notifications, which you can turn off). I am not blaming Knuth, he must really dislike distraction of any sort. However, having lived pre- and post-Slack period, I can't say that Slack has worsened the situation. When there wasn't Slack, I had people coming to my desk t…

> However, having lived pre- and post-Slack period ... Perhaps I am (really) old, but pre slack is a blink of an eye ago. Also we are, sadly, not yet post-Slack. > ... I can't say that Slack has worsened the situation. When there wasn't Slack, I had people coming to my desk to ask the question (vastly more distracting). We had meetings for tiny questions and they stretched far too long. The culture of company that is…

I have been at several places that treat email as a formal record / promise / contract. It’s “in writing.” I have never encountered people who use chat that way, even though people will sometimes search the record to refresh their memory.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#209

Post by justaaron »

justaaron wrote: post #208
justaaron wrote: post #207

"captain obvious called"

the name gives you a clue...

... although i have to wonder about the sanity of companies willing to pay for viewing their own messages past 10k on a threaded messaging app, one level above to-dos-mvp and 2 above hello world... the css is nice, i guess....
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