Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

andiroberts.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 41 posts

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#31

Post by cheesecakegood »

steve1977 wrote: post #10
guenthert wrote: post #8

'social physics of conversation'? Were social dynamics of conversations meant?

No physics werw involved in this article. But I guess it makes it appear more "sciency"

You can to some extent model a flexible number of conversations in a room in terms of a kind of graph theory: duration, number of participants, correlations or overlap between participants, and so on. The assertion here is that those particulars change the fundamental nature of what is taking place. Though “kinetics” or “mechanics” are probably more apt terms for the framework of those interactions, I see no reason to dismiss it out of hand.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#32

Post by acbart »

mulhoon wrote: post #5

This is a great post. I've been advocating this for over a decade. > The most important conversations are not always the ones that appear on the agenda. They are the ones that happen before the formal session begins, in the ten minutes after it ends, in the corridor while people are putting on their coats. These are not peripheral to the group’s work. They are often where the group’s actual thinking takes place. This…

The best talks at a conference are the ones in the hallway.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#33

Post by acbart »

foobarian wrote: post #29
vjulian wrote: post #19

What are the implications or recommendations for WFH environments, I wonder?

I've been wondering how to move past the "Slack and occasionally Zoom/Google Meet for meetings" phase of remote work we've been stuck in since Covid hit. Some teams tried to set up optional social hours but they feel forced. The two managers always show up and it becomes really sweaty. Maybe set up personal office hours once a week? It would be nice if some new pattern emerged that providers like Slack or Google coul…

The closest I ever saw this working was a site called OhYay. It really felt like spaces you could move around in. It wasn't the same as IRL, but it was about as close as I think you could get. Sadly, the company shut down before they could become profitable.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#35

Post by exe34 »

m0llusk wrote: post #14
steve1977 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No physics werw involved in this article. But I guess it makes it appear more "sciency"

Wrong. Energy, velocity, and flow characteristics are central to this analysis. The term Social Physics differentiates this context from Physics.

Sounds like cargo culting.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#36

Post by t-writescode »

vjulian wrote: post #19

What are the implications or recommendations for WFH environments, I wonder?

Never underestimate the power of a banter chat room that people just … talk… in. About anything, everything. Random protesting, etc.

One of my previous companies talked so much in the random channel we had a second one made with our name on it (literally).

And I feel like our team had better cohesion and got a whole lot of work done, in part due to it.

Being okay with talking to your coworkers about nothing makes it easier to talk to them about something, at least in my experience, and every company I’ve worked at that had that.

Further, at companies that DIDN’T behave that way (sample size one), talking to coworkers about anything and or nothing was a HUGE, stressful chore that always felt like a problem and like I was stepping on people’s time.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#37

Post by burningChrome »

foobarian wrote: post #29
vjulian wrote: post #19

What are the implications or recommendations for WFH environments, I wonder?

I've been wondering how to move past the "Slack and occasionally Zoom/Google Meet for meetings" phase of remote work we've been stuck in since Covid hit. Some teams tried to set up optional social hours but they feel forced. The two managers always show up and it becomes really sweaty. Maybe set up personal office hours once a week? It would be nice if some new pattern emerged that providers like Slack or Google coul…

Interesting thing was our company paid millions to covert our office into an open office concept - just about a year before COVID hit. People were not fans and some of the horror stories were hard to imagine were real - like the guy who's desk was in front of a good friend. During morning stand-ups, he would raise his desk to the highest point, then while the meeting was going on do a full kettle bell routine AT HIS DESK.

Because of all the negative feedback, they spent millions more during COVID to put up cubes and prepare for a post COVID world. 5 years on and the RTO policy is you have to be in the office 4 days a week. Its like a library now - people come in, work, go home. Very little interaction. People are silent on the elevators. I've heard some groups getting together and having impromptu chats or having more traditional lunch groups, but for the vast majority of people? They're not interested. Its like being in the office is more a formality for some. Rather a place to network, chat other people up and use it as a good way to keep tabs on your own mental health.

I was telling a guy I play hockey with how this new reality is kind of weird. He said he worked in Germany for 8 years and said this is how Germans have done it forever. Would be interesting to hear if this is actually true, or just his experience.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#38

Post by phoneafriend »

Our internal voices are often very different. A core feature of not only functioning teams but also democracies is that room exists for a strong diversity of these to be expressed (& heard) freely & frequently.

Absent this, we can backslide very quickly, or stagnate.

Or sometimes grow until market conditions no longer favor us, when underlying limits are surfaced by well positioned rivals.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#39

Post by ahf8Aithaex7Nai »

steve1977 wrote: post #10
guenthert wrote: post #8

'social physics of conversation'? Were social dynamics of conversations meant?

No physics werw involved in this article. But I guess it makes it appear more "sciency"

You know, strictly speaking, a guinea pig isn't really a pig either. If you were expecting real physics, you should have realized from the word “social” that it wouldn't be in there. Particle families aren't really families either. Quantum mechanical spin and flavor are just metaphors, too. Welcome to human language.

Re: The social physics of conversation: Communication patterns matter

#40

Post by HPsquared »

mulhoon wrote: post #5

This is a great post. I've been advocating this for over a decade. > The most important conversations are not always the ones that appear on the agenda. They are the ones that happen before the formal session begins, in the ten minutes after it ends, in the corridor while people are putting on their coats. These are not peripheral to the group’s work. They are often where the group’s actual thinking takes place. This…

Just like how the most valuable thoughts and ideas tend to come while walking or in the shower etc.
Post reply on HN