101–110 of 110 posts
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no idea why this was downvoted, except possibly by people who don't know about wolfram
That was a great read. It got me smiling!. It's not often that you find fellow control freaks in the wild. Stephen Wolfram's personal infrastructure sounds overall great, but it crumbles in the sound department. If you're going to be on calls for hours every day, for everything that is holy please get a hands-free set up. The most ergonomic object is no object at all. I use a Scarlett 212 mic and sound card paired wi…
Are you using a single mic placed on your desk? A wireless lav mic? I imagine you can hear your partners quite well, but I want to be heard well also.
HQ mics are great because you can fine tune the volume. It's high enough for my voice to come across strongly, but low enough to avoid background noises, people hearing themselves through my speakers, etc.
The idea behind my set up is to have a hands-free and always-on working room. I just walk in and know that everything is ready to start a call. Just click a button to make a call or accept it. No need to fiddle with headphones, adjust volumes, check if sound is working well, etc.
The only exception to this set up is when I have a confidential call, in which case I use my phone or headphones.
Everything is wired, as wireless sound devices are just not there in terms of quality and avoiding annoyances (see the HN thread called 'The first minute of every phone call is a torture now)
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Exactly, I don't this gives either thing the respect it deserves. Just do both things, on their own, properly.
Are we gatekeeping walks and meetings now? You can walk and talk and not annoy other people -- if other people are even around. You can also walk and talk and give enough attention to your meeting. Use your judgement.
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It's more that their full attention isn't on the meeting at hand - how can it be when they're wandering some nature trail taking it all in? If I spent a week busting my ass to get some feature shipped, and in a sprint re-cap meeting all I see is my boss wandering a forest trail going "Uh-hu, uh-hu, wow there's a red-breasted warbler..." I'd become very upset.
As if you would have the full attention of others in a physical meeting…
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Why does it have to add anything to my life? Why be the third person to climb a mountain? I hear tell of a 19th century English gentleman who manually recorded the level of rain water and the barometric pressure in his garden, a dozen times a day, including the wee hours of the morning, waking up several times a night as though afflicted with the worst UTI possible, through all weathers, all seasons, all ills, all tr…
Feels weird that you have to defend this take on hobbies on a forum called “Hacker News”. My father is building a small sailboat model (the Santísima Trinidad), and if someone asked “What does that add to his life?” I personally would pity that person, for its lack of empathy and views on a successful life.
In questions of code and of life, we should ask "why about code" and "what about people."
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^ ^\ / >
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For the last year or so I have scheduled my two status meetings back to back in the mornings. That means I have 90 minutes of walking in the forrest in the morning (30min before the meetings and then 30min each for the two meetings). I have two teams reporting to me, and each have a 30minute morning meeting where we decide what needs the team attention during the day. There is also room for small talk to keep it a bi…
Don't you feel rude to the other people trying to enjoy their time in the forest for yammering on a work call? Not as egregious as the mountain bikers who blast music from speakers on the trails as they ride, but still.
I’m on mute most of the time anyway, I speak maybe 1/7 of the time on the calls. If I meet anyone in the forrest, I politely say hello to them, and that’s that.
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For the last year or so I have scheduled my two status meetings back to back in the mornings. That means I have 90 minutes of walking in the forrest in the morning (30min before the meetings and then 30min each for the two meetings). I have two teams reporting to me, and each have a 30minute morning meeting where we decide what needs the team attention during the day. There is also room for small talk to keep it a bi…
What about for other users of the forest? Hopefully you're able to stay well away from them so as not to disturb the peace and quiet of the forest for work.
If I run in to someone, I politely say hello, and that’s that.
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I guess it depends. When you're talking to a person directly, most likely your ears aren't blocked. So you get the feedback of your voice levels, and adjust accordingly. This is really difficult to do when you have earphones in, blocking everything. Usually people with both earphones in tend to raise their voices nearly to a shouting level. I don't know if OP does that or not though.
It's more that their full attention isn't on the meeting at hand - how can it be when they're wandering some nature trail taking it all in? If I spent a week busting my ass to get some feature shipped, and in a sprint re-cap meeting all I see is my boss wandering a forest trail going "Uh-hu, uh-hu, wow there's a red-breasted warbler..." I'd become very upset.
Really. Your comment kind of annoys me because it seems you have no experience of this, while I have several years experience of it, yet you are sure that you know better than me what my experience of it is?
Edit: Also, my teams know about it and all agree with it, some of them do walks themselves.
Right after a pandemic that disrupted to a degree multiple aspects of our life, I say this is not the right time to seek productivity. It is time to reconnect with yourself, your motivations, and your ability to build self enforcing social relations. If you have all these, congratulations, go for optimizing productivity!
Can you please elaborate more on the "self enforcing social relations" part?
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Are you using a single mic placed on your desk? A wireless lav mic? I imagine you can hear your partners quite well, but I want to be heard well also.
I use a condenser mic so the audio going out is top notch. The mic is the one offered with the Scarlett 212 bundle but you could use any decent mic. HQ mics are great because you can fine tune the volume. It's high enough for my voice to come across strongly, but low enough to avoid background noises, people hearing themselves through my speakers, etc. The idea behind my set up is to have a hands-free and always-on w…