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AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

washingtonpost.com

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Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#131

Post by CalRobert »

dyauspitr wrote: post #118
meroes wrote: post #65

The problem is these meetings are so low information density even an AI summary is not worth my time. And it’s not some elitist mindset. It’s like the entire reason there are these regular meetings is to make some mid level person feel better. They like giving directions vocally because that authority is harder to question than if they wrote up a memo and all the receivers can poke holes in it. I’m convinced most mee…

[flagged]

Taking time to develop cogent responses is the opposite of poor communication skills

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#132

Post by staunton »

coliveira wrote: post #113
singron wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sympathetic to this knowing how few people actually read their emails (and slacks etc.). If you've ever sent out a 30 second survey to your coworkers, you know what I'm talking about. But I also know people don't really pay attention in these meetings either. I feel async communication could work this way with the right cultural hygiene (e.g. consistent labeling, brevity, novelty, and relevancy), and some places…

The reason people don't read email is that companies have poisoned their communication channels. If an important email is right beside a practically junk message, it will be lost.

An interesting aspect of this: Where I work, an email subject line including "important" or "urgent" is a 99% indication for junk...

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#133

Post by o1bf2k25n8g5 »

kaashif wrote: post #97
jedberg wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m convinced most meetings are to make up for poor writing skills. That's not entirely it. Some people just won't say something unless put in a setting where they are explicity asked for it. I've had meetings where I ask for a status, and someone says they are stuck on X, and they've been stuck on X for two days. And I'll ask why they didn't just ask for help. They weren't comfortable asking for help. They were on…

It's usually possible for the person running a small project to ask everyone for status and know what everyone's going to say in the meeting before the meeting. Then the meeting is pointless. But not all projects allow for that.

> It's usually possible for the person running a small project to ask everyone for status

Perhaps, for efficiency, they could ask everyone simultaneously in parallel, or at least roughly around the same time?

To maximize creativity and opportunity, perhaps we could then figure out some way to share each person's status update with every other person on the team?

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#134

Post by aryehof »

What a nightmare. First a week full of useless undefined meetings, largely so that everyone can cover their asses, and now most don’t even bother turning up because they can automate covering their asses. I can see the prompt now… “let me know if there is something that affects me or which I need to know or take action on in order to cover my ass”.

I’m pretty strict. Meetings are for decisions and only parties to the decision are invited and attend. The agenda and decision required is circulated beforehand. Only the time to make the decision is scheduled. Need 10 minutes? Then the meeting is 10 minutes.

Catch-ups, get-togethers, presentations, status updates, and brainstorming sessions are labelled as such explicitly and are treated differently. The event and attendance needs to be justified.

Such a system works quite well. Perhaps worth mentioning that I also refuse to be CC’d on emails that do not require a response, just as I do not CC anyone if no response is required. I also require that people be left alone to work without interruption - how contrarian.

It just sucks if you have incompetent management that doesn’t allow or implement such things.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#135

Post by Hamuko »

rib3ye wrote: post #101
hobs wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last sentence is it - most people can't communicate much less write well, hell, I don't write well, but I hope my ideas are at least clearly communicated.

In software, you have the privilege of writing succinctly to communicate facts. In every other industry, the message needs to be packaged with courtesies like a greeting, cushioned delivery, and salutations. It’s a big waste of time and people stop reading your messages. But don’t put a bow on it and you get labeled as an asshole. At least the AI note taker can make me sound more palatable.

I wish I had that privilege. I've had a manager make a paragraph-long question about if I had any training courses that I'd want to take, and when I answered with a "No", I got chewed out for not being communicative or something.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#136

Post by staunton »

Spivak wrote: post #84
DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just historical precedent, it's about creating common knowledge that everybody has received the relevant information

So an email? You could not read the email, but I can just as easily not pay attention. You have a way better chance of getting people to pay attention to a few paragraph email than that same information stretched to fill an hour.

However, it's a lot more socially acceptable to say "I missed the email" than "I sat there for 30min while you were talking but didn't actually listen"...

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#138

Post by pj_mukh »

jbc1 wrote: post #47
pj_mukh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having had been on both sides of this coin, I agree a lot of managers mis-manage meetings. But then there's those engineers who don't show up to meetings and then a month later come to you with a "I don't know how we're deciding on some of these critical product features" and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion.

Even if the final nod of agreement happens in real time the actual decision making process for critical product features should involve planning, thinking, research, etc. There should be a strong paper trail such that everyone knows what the decision is going to be prior to the "everyone gets together and declares this is how things are going to be" step. If them missing some meetings means they're in the dark as to…

I realize introverts don't work that way, I know, I am one. But I've had some of the most brilliant ideas come through purely on a discussion nay sometimes an emotionally charged argument.

Important decisions are almost never 2+2=4, if they were, they wouldn't be important and yes you wouldn't need a meeting (like I admitted, there's definitely a lot of unimportant meetings).

But important decisions are almost always an exercise in coaxing, cajoling and persuasion, which is just extremely low fidelity on paper.

Most engineers will look at their team leads and say "I don't believe in this strategy on paper", and all their team leads can say is "I was at the meeting. You had to be there"

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#139

Post by pj_mukh »

meroes wrote: post #65

The problem is these meetings are so low information density even an AI summary is not worth my time. And it’s not some elitist mindset. It’s like the entire reason there are these regular meetings is to make some mid level person feel better. They like giving directions vocally because that authority is harder to question than if they wrote up a memo and all the receivers can poke holes in it. I’m convinced most mee…

sigh You have engineers that read memos? Must be nice.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#140

Post by staunton »

jimbob45 wrote: post #130

It’s occurred to me that scrum masters are not long for this world at all. It would only take one engineer to suck up their entire organization’s meetings and then train an AI scrum master on them. Surprised we haven’t seen a Y-combinator company do it yet.

That's just like asking to replace priests by AI...
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