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Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#81

Post by kybernetikos »

closeparen wrote: post #58
dragonsky wrote: post #22

Interestingly enough, I find were having more of these conversations working remotely than we did in the office. I think part of it is that using MS Teams other people are a lot more accessible, just drop into the chat and leave a message. If they are busy no probs, if they aren't then they will reply and we talk about whatever. Sick of typing, drop into a voice or video chat. Want to talk work, then it's easy to sha…

I hope the “social side” of working remotely is kept to a minimum. Work socialization in the office led to some rich real-world friendships, but if the endgame of getting to know someone on a video call is just to have more video calls... gross. Remote meetings are such revolting experiences, it’s important that they be used as rarely as possible and with ironclad justification of business necessity for every second…

I don't really agree with this, but accepting it for the sake of argument, then it suggests to me that remote work needs to take up less time so that people have more time to make friends outside of work, since they're going to have fewer friends at work.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#82

Post by mcny »

OJFord wrote: post #68
mcny wrote: post #29

> 1. Do you miss these conversations? I worked as a contractor in the office and never really thought about it. Like I had conversations with people in the break roomwhere they know me maybe because they see me talking to my boss but I don't know who they are or what they do. Or I overhear people talking about their work and I got to catch a glimpse of what they do (I wrote internal web applications they used so this…

What do you do to need a symmetric 1Gbps connection? I have 150/150Mbps which seems more than sufficient - I upgraded from 30/1Mbps because the uplink could be a bit painful pushing databases or container images around, not because I needed 150 (symmetric 30 not an option).

> I have 150/150Mbps which seems more than sufficient

Yes, that should be sufficient if you consistently get the advertised rates. Comcast (and all coaxial cable spectrum/cox/...) infrastructure, from what I understand is in a very poor condition due to neglect and even their "gigabit" is actually gigabit down / 30mbps up at best. and then there's over subscription. Try having everyone in your household on different video conference call.

My understanding is once you get fiber installed to the home, the difference in ongoing expense of 150Mbps vs gigabit is not that much. So might as well?

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#84

Post by Const-me »

1 – maybe a bit, I’ve been working from home for almost 10 years now.

2 – I sometimes write spontaneous e-mails unrelated to my current work. I usually address them to more than one person. Works well for me. Sometimes people like it and either me or someone else implements that after figuring out the details. Other times someone explains why it won’t work and I learn a lot of new stuff from adjacent areas.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#85

Post by lawwantsin17 »

What research? Blog articles? I've been working remotely for 14 years and I can definitely say inspiring conversations happen on the phone most of all. Video chat is not sorted yet. The idea that spontaneous conversation spurs anything positive is Office Space nonsense.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#86

Post by lowpro »

Not spontaneous, but if I'm in a meeting with someone I've never met before I'll schedule a 1:1 just to say hi. It's worked well in expanding my network despite working remotely.

This strategy doesn't work for a lot of people because I think most people think of it as awkward when if you word it friendly enough people understand this would be more normal in the office.

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#89

Post by OJFord »

mcny wrote: post #82
OJFord wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do to need a symmetric 1Gbps connection? I have 150/150Mbps which seems more than sufficient - I upgraded from 30/1Mbps because the uplink could be a bit painful pushing databases or container images around, not because I needed 150 (symmetric 30 not an option).

> I have 150/150Mbps which seems more than sufficient Yes, that should be sufficient if you consistently get the advertised rates. Comcast (and all coaxial cable spectrum/cox/...) infrastructure, from what I understand is in a very poor condition due to neglect and even their "gigabit" is actually gigabit down / 30mbps up at best. and then there's over subscription. Try having everyone in your household on different…

I get consistently a bit more than that, about 165/160Mbps (as measured by fast.com).

That's fair - it's just me - I just read it as work needing a gigabit, not the Netflix/games/whatever use of the family hogging it.

I'm not in the USA, so 'YMMV', but the home came with fibre, and the ongoing cost is £35 vs. £60 (the 30/1 plan was £22, and - as I check these prices - is now 50/5).

(Interested Britons - Hyperoptic; prices after introductory discount year. Cannot fault on price or speed or service (when available), only -ve has been downtime for scheduled maintenance overnight from 11pm.)

Re: Ask HN: Do you have inspiring spontaneous conversations while remote working?

#90

Post by strikelaserclaw »

Not at all.

1. Do you miss these conversations? Back to the in-office time, when do you usually have a spontaneous chat that is interesting and also meaningful to your work? (eg. After a conference)

Yes usually when I've learned something or am working on something that excites me, if i see a coworker i respect or am friends with, i usually strike up a conversation about that topic.

2. In remote work, have you tried to restore these moments? What did you do? Is it working well?

Hard to do, don't really have any real cues as to what frame of mind the other person on the other side is. Are they busy with something that is pressing? Do they have to pick up their kids in 5 mins?

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