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If you're remote, ramble

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Re: If you're remote, ramble

#41

Post by count »

siva7 wrote: post #10

> We have no scheduled meetings, so ramblings are our equivalent of water cooler talk. This is the difference. Most teams have scheduled daily (!) meetings, so such rambling channels often times feel more like another chore and therefore fail because they haven't emerged of a natural need from the team.

We schedule a 2x a week 15-30 minute no-project-talk socialization meeting for our fully distributed team. It helps a LOT. We also have dedicated rambling channels in slack, active much of the day.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#42

Post by cheschire »

navane wrote: post #35
madduci wrote: post #19

At work we use Teams and one interesting feature that I use isnky own chat (where inam alone), where in post links that mostly interest me. Also Signal offers something similar, called "Personal Notes"

Too many typos isnky -> is my Inam -> I am In -> I? Funnily, the first two autocorrected when I typed then in and I genuinely didn't know what isnky was supposed to mean. On topic though, if no one else can read it it's like writing in your own local notes files.

…I use is my own chat (where I am alone)…

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#43

Post by aljimbra »

makeitdouble wrote: post #37

> Each ramblings channel should be named after the team member, and only that person can post top-level messages. Others can reply in threads, but not start new ones. I'm trying hard to understand why it has to be a personal channel. Water coolers aren't personal, that's the whole point. In particular you're still adjusting what you write to be OK for anyone in your team read, so the distinction with the other "casua…

I am conscious of double posting, and bumping other people's messages off of the page too soon. If I'm posting too much I get annoyed at myself on behalf of other people. So that would be a big plus of these channels to me.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#44

Post by microtonal »

codesnik wrote: post #40

I've tried to create or revive a watercooler channel in every remote company I've worked in last 10 years. For some reason it usually doesn't work. Some people don't needed it, some people just call each other and vent out privately. I miss watercooler talk.

We had watercooler meetings some at remote companies I worked at, but yeah they usually don't really work. One problem is that the stream always attenuates to one person (which is good in normal meetings to not pick up too much random background noise), but it completely kills spontaneity. Also, there are always people with horrendous mic quality or background noise.

As a result 1:1s tend to work much better technically for socializing, but it of course doesn't bring the group vibe.

The idea in the article sounds really nice! Unfortunately does not really scale to larger companies than maybe 5-10 people.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#45

Post by makeitdouble »

codesnik wrote: post #40

I've tried to create or revive a watercooler channel in every remote company I've worked in last 10 years. For some reason it usually doesn't work. Some people don't needed it, some people just call each other and vent out privately. I miss watercooler talk.

TBH one of the best part of watercooler talk was the limited range (only the people who're there) and no trace of the exchange (all verbal)

We also tried scheduled casual talks with the whole team, but didn't have more success than you.

I think the closest we get was the small talk before meetings start, but as we're starting to get auto-transcript for all our meetings that also became very bland.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#46

Post by marginalia_nu »

This type of writing down ideas and half-thoughts is useful even if you work alone. Thoughts are very fleeting, the instant you put them to paper (or bits) they materialize and it becomes much easier to evolve them.

When doing deep work in some problem domain, often I find the brain starts to drop these highly ephemeral fragments of ideas (that are sometimes downright ingenious). Caveat is they often only come once, and then they're gone if you don't grab them.

I often keep an envelope or scrap paper next to my desk where I write down any idea I have, whether it's "I should fix this" or "what if I did that", really no matter how small I try to put it to paper.

What usually ends up happening is I somehow end up with a fairly concrete todo list of easy improvements.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#47

Post by makeitdouble »

aljimbra wrote: post #43
makeitdouble wrote: post #37

> Each ramblings channel should be named after the team member, and only that person can post top-level messages. Others can reply in threads, but not start new ones. I'm trying hard to understand why it has to be a personal channel. Water coolers aren't personal, that's the whole point. In particular you're still adjusting what you write to be OK for anyone in your team read, so the distinction with the other "casua…

I am conscious of double posting, and bumping other people's messages off of the page too soon. If I'm posting too much I get annoyed at myself on behalf of other people. So that would be a big plus of these channels to me.

I see your point.

It might not help in all situations, but I see some people threading their posts to avoid that effect and somewhat keep a context to their thoughts if someone wants to jump in.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#48

Post by hk__2 »

9dev wrote: post #6

The cynic in me says this ends up as yet another list of channels that I need to scan for anything interesting, and interact with to keep up an appearance of engagement. I appreciate any effort to increase social cohesion in remote teams, but intermingling it with one of the main stressors of my work environment—keeping up with team communication—isn’t the right way IMHO.

> The cynic in me says this ends up as yet another list of channels that I need to scan for anything interesting, and interact with to keep up an appearance of engagement.

The post says it’s channels you mute and you are not expected to interact with.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#49

Post by romanows »

I think it is significant that this rambling channel supplements the yearly in-person meeting. Presumably, that's where one tends to form deeper social connections and get a feel for what different people find interesting to talk about? That is, if the team is varied enough so that there is little overlap in hobby interests or daily life.

Re: If you're remote, ramble

#50

Post by junon »

I have a whole private discord server with multiple channels just for this, for my personal projects. Yes yes, walled garden and all, I know. But it's incredibly useful even though I'm the only one in there.

I'd imagine this is highly team dependent. I'd personally love if my company adopted this. I think only one other team member would actually participate though. We're far too busy.

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