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The Remote Pop-In (2021)

twos.dev

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Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#91

Post by ClassyJacket »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #84
2easy wrote: post #25

I don't get it. Why people are trying to recreate the horrors of the office? Is it because of luck of human connection? In my opinion everyone who's advocating "meetings" - formal or not - is just unable to express thoughts in writing. You have to learn to communicate asynchronously and become a better writer rather than trying to recreate the dysfunctional environment that you are familiar with.

> Why people are trying to recreate the horrors of the office? Is it because of luck of human connection? Because a lot of people have a pathological need for social interaction. In my opinion this is extremely unhealthy, a person should not be dependent on other humans to be comfortable and happy, but society sees it as normal and even desirable.

I strongly disagree, and I would suggest if you feel that way you have an abnormality such as autism.

Human interaction is fundamental to being a human, and people should be expected to desire it regularly.

I do, however, agree people shouldn't be dependent on their office for that. I have no desire to make friends with coworkers, unless it just happens to occur organically because we like each other.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#92

Post by Test0129 »

samcheng wrote: post #16

One related technique that I think works well is to hold "Office Hours" at least once a week. Just schedule a regular meeting, and attend it - then advertise widely that you are available at that time and that anyone is welcome. It's a great way to foster skip-level interactions, give help to someone who needs it, and just chat. It's really fun when a few people come in at once. Sometimes nobody shows up, and that's…

I don't want to be the downer here because this is a common view and my company does this as well.

I personally do not have fun in these kinds of meetings. Even if they were held in person. My goal at the end of the day is to finish my work quickly and efficiently and try to get out a little early while meeting my obligations. Typically these chats eat up an hour or more and I end up working longer to make up for it.

They are extremely useful for helping newer engineers and answering questions but the "fun" chats tend to be just time consuming noise. It's entirely possible I have a different/maligned view of my relationship with my job but I just don't like giving any more than I have to for something that consumes 40-60 hours a week of my life.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#93

Post by Test0129 »

aar9 wrote: post #15

> If you're going to the restroom and will be AFK, you can join the restroom channel. You're in, but away. No one is actually wearing a headset on the toilet, it's just a fun way to feel like a real office. Interesting, I would never have expected anyone to feel the need of recreating this particular piece of office life in a remote setting.

I've realized that extroverts are really, really damaged by the remote work setting. The word "fun" gets thrown around a lot but to me the reason remote is so great is because I don't have to play make-believe with my coworkers.

That being said this suggestion is hilarious. I would imagine people are auto-muted in the restroom channel so it seems like the ideal place to sit yourself if you're required in zoom all day. It's totally valid. I often get my best thinking done in the bathroom.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#94

Post by Test0129 »

2easy wrote: post #25

I don't get it. Why people are trying to recreate the horrors of the office? Is it because of luck of human connection? In my opinion everyone who's advocating "meetings" - formal or not - is just unable to express thoughts in writing. You have to learn to communicate asynchronously and become a better writer rather than trying to recreate the dysfunctional environment that you are familiar with.

I am a very big introvert. I've recently realized (and adopted) the convenience of short 5-10 min zoom calls to sort out something rather than typing. Often times there is context that is either hard to explain or something that inflection will convey better than well written prose.

I personally don't like all the "fun" calls extroverts seem to want to have all the time. But for short huddles I've often gotten unblocked 10x quicker by simply seeing if someone had 5 minutes to talk through something 1-on-1. Then I have their undivided attention and I don't have to wait for them to get around to me on Slack or email which understandably take a back seat.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#95

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Test0129 wrote: post #92
samcheng wrote: post #16

One related technique that I think works well is to hold "Office Hours" at least once a week. Just schedule a regular meeting, and attend it - then advertise widely that you are available at that time and that anyone is welcome. It's a great way to foster skip-level interactions, give help to someone who needs it, and just chat. It's really fun when a few people come in at once. Sometimes nobody shows up, and that's…

I don't want to be the downer here because this is a common view and my company does this as well. I personally do not have fun in these kinds of meetings. Even if they were held in person. My goal at the end of the day is to finish my work quickly and efficiently and try to get out a little early while meeting my obligations. Typically these chats eat up an hour or more and I end up working longer to make up for it.…

Agree 100%. We used to do this and even if I had fun it was still taking an hour out of my day. Like you, my goal is "get in, get the job done, go home."

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#96

Post by oliverbennett »

By far the closest online equivalent to pop-ins I've had has been... inside video games. The first 10 hours of playing DayZ, a survival FPS with in-game spatial audio, was a revelation to me. Mostly relating to how, why and when people to talk to each other. I'm convinced you can't separate the work (talking or doing) from the workspace (real or virtual).

I've been building a 3D visual collaboration platform that has some fairly obvious value in how you externalise/connect/recollect thoughts, but I'm really keen to explore if it can become a workplace where pop-ins and serendipitous social collisions come easily. For that to happen it needs to become something you can spend large chunk of your workday inside of, which is no easy task.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#97

Post by dwrtz »

GordonS wrote: post #70
dwrtz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear you stopped working on your tool. My cofounder and I are working on a similar product (teraphone.app). We're focusing specifically on making a discord-like product for microsoft shops. I agree it's partly a culture thing. There's also an awareness issue. A lot of people don't know that pop-in style communication tools exist, especially outside the tech industry.

Interesting, do you think you have a chance at competing against Microsoft's own tools, like Teams? Regardless how crappy Teams is at certain things, the people that decide "we're using Teams" often barely use it themselves.

Yeah we decided to integrate with Teams because I had that exact experience in the past. I was at a company that decided "we're using Teams". We weren't allowed to install alternatives like Discord or Slack.

Teams itself has some limitations that are easy to improve upon. They have no way of doing a huddle/pop-in-style room. They screw up the presence signaling in a way that discourages pop-ins: if you join a call with someone your and the other participants' status is set to busy/unavailable. From other peoples' perspective this isn't very inviting, and doesn't indicate that the conversation is public. Teams also limits who can share screens to only 1 person at a time.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#98

Post by Aaargh20318 »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #91
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why people are trying to recreate the horrors of the office? Is it because of luck of human connection? Because a lot of people have a pathological need for social interaction. In my opinion this is extremely unhealthy, a person should not be dependent on other humans to be comfortable and happy, but society sees it as normal and even desirable.

I strongly disagree, and I would suggest if you feel that way you have an abnormality such as autism. Human interaction is fundamental to being a human, and people should be expected to desire it regularly. I do, however, agree people shouldn't be dependent on their office for that. I have no desire to make friends with coworkers, unless it just happens to occur organically because we like each other.

> Human interaction is fundamental to being a human, and people should be expected to desire it regularly.

It's a weakness that needs to be fixed, not something that should be encouraged.

Re: The Remote Pop-In (2021)

#99

Post by monkpit »

colechristensen wrote: post #24
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voicemail is the worst possible form of communication. Consider a plot of fidelity vs latency. You want to talk to somebody - high-fidelity back-and-forth communications instantly. It's up in one corner of our plot. Now consider voicemail. One-way, lots of "um, uh" wasted time, tedious menus to fetch and wade thru it, maybe tomorrow. It's down in the other corner of our plot. Literally any other form of communication…

I don’t get this at all. The UI on voicemail is easy on every phone I’ve used for a decade. Room for one fact “I called about X, it is this important” or “This is the simple piece of information I wanted to cover”

How is this different or more convenient than a chat message?

Hey! I’m working on X and I was wondering if you’d have time today to help me out.

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