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

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241–250 of 405 posts

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

#241
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- 1 . Use jira or any other porject managment tools instead. - 2 . Use Zulip - and integrate them with project management tools. - 3 . Zulip is good for this also - 4 . Unless you need to share screen and explain things , you don't need meetings for that. - 5 - Chat please - 6 - Brainstroming is only place where meetings are needed.

I stick to IC roles but personally I prefer meetings over your alternatives. Project management tools are there for the long view and tracking, I don't want to juggle priorities of a JIRA backlog, it basically pushes the burden of PM to me. With a meeting if someone has a blocker thats on me I prefer if they raise it in front of the team and we agree if it should get done now or later. Other than that I share what I…

A bad culture can emerge with tooling first or meeting first cultures.

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

#242
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…

They are "low information density" because that is not the point of the meeting. Meetings are first and foremost about relationship management. You do not get to management and certainly not climb the management hierarchy if you do not at least implicitly feel this. The actual meeting topic, while it can be relevant, is secondary. You establish and reinforce the pecking order, sense allegiance and subversion, or, fee…

> The actual meeting topic, while it can be relevant, is secondary. You establish and reinforce the pecking order, sense allegiance and subversion, or, feel out potential for reinforcing bonds or mitigating fallouts.

In other words, a total waste of time for me. I don't care about pecking orders, I ignore them anyway.

> This is why people focussed on 'doing the actual work' hate meetings, while carreer focussed people love them.

Management isn't the only option to make a career in.

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

#243
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are "low information density" because that is not the point of the meeting. Meetings are first and foremost about relationship management. You do not get to management and certainly not climb the management hierarchy if you do not at least implicitly feel this. The actual meeting topic, while it can be relevant, is secondary. You establish and reinforce the pecking order, sense allegiance and subversion, or, fee…

I've led cross-functional teams in multiple organisations (albeit not in tech) and I'd argue it's a bit more complex than that. Regular team meetings can cover multiple needs, e.g.: * Keeping everyone working on a complex project updated on progress * Keeping everyone 'aligned' - (horrible corporate word but) essentially all working together effectively towards the same goals (be they short or long term) * Providing…

Yeah I hate those team calls too though. I don't give a shit what others in the team are doing. I'm not a team player at all. As such I always manoeuver myself into owning a particular topic which works well because I'm not slowed down by others. But these calls are something I just tune out on. I wouldn't even read the summary because I just don't care.

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

#244
Then they should host the meetings on irc! (not completely kidding.)

Or maybe there's an opportunity for someone to create an "interop environment" where AIs representing diverse persons' agendas within an organisation can come together and agree on outcomes and goals on behalf of their sponsors (maybe not completely serious, but ...)

Yeah, I know TFA is just notetaking but that shouldn't stop us from thinking ahead, right? The possibilities for cost-cutting in middle management are spectacular!

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

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>async doesn’t go well with scale, Sync is even worse at scale. I had the pleasure of attending standups in a 20-person team. It was a nightmare where I said two sentences and then wasted the next two hours of my life listening to things I either know or are unrelevant to me. >you’re punishing everyone with having to back-read Great, because skipping three pages of unimportant conversation is faster than skipping 30…

The problem with all processes is that people aren’t interested in sticking with them. Why is your team 20 people if the majority don’t do anything you’re remotely close to? Someone should have split the team or at least the standup. Why doesn’t your lead enforce a time limit and script? It can happen the other way round as well. My team is small but only I ever stick to the script. Every one else talks in detail for…

Now you need three managers. The reason for the 20 person standup is to save money and give lip service to the standup trend.

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

#247
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As well as those standups which are just micro-presentations where each person talks in turn about their respective card but there's no discussion. The teams that moved to async standups where they just post status updates in Slack and amigo only when needed seem happier.

The worst part about the standup ritual is that no one talks outside standups. With async text communication channels you'll post when an issue shows up. With the standups you'll wait until the next standup and maybe forget the details until then, or forget about the issue entirely and that will lead to technical debt. > when an issue shows up Advanced usage: post proactively before you reach the task/issue. This way…

> With async text communication channels you'll post when an issue shows up.

I do this all the time, but often no one cares about the issue I raised at that time. So I have to wait until next day standup anyway, because then I can raise the issue in group and force someone to comment or reply.

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

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the years I've moved away from thinking of the daily standup as being a way to update everyone on what we're doing. The value in it is having a daily time when everyone on the team sees each other's faces and has a brief conversation. Sometimes it'll be a quick hello, other times we'll talk for half an hour about nothing in particular, but that's valuable on a remote team where it's all to easy to forget that ev…

That's what happy hours and optional team activities are for. After hours gaming groups, book clubs, hobby groups, etc do this much better.

That seems socially punishing for people with other obligations (parents) and anyone who’s just not interested in the activities.

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

#250
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict that in "20 minutes in the future" we'll see the industry moving to AI based scrum-assistants with a scheduled daily trigger, that will reach out to each dev to have a check-in conversation and then automatically synthesize the input from everyone and update the project manager (possibly AI-based itself) with insight about how things are progressing and recommendations.

https://www.dailybot.com/ I think we're re-inventing early 2010s development trends with extra steps.

this is literally something my team already does —- you don’t need AI but this does fit with my running theory that AI makes it easier for people to see stupid processes they should change
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