I manage teams without a single call • Hacker News Board

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#21

Post by dghlsakjg » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

davidhunter wrote: post #6

Using your analogy, imagine it's the year 2026. Two armies are fighting. One uses letter to communicate. One uses phones. Which army do you want to fight in? This is an obviously poor policy.

Why are we using letters?

Are we avoiding leaving RF spectrum traces? Are we worried about compromised digital channels? What is the reasoning?

In 2026 I'd rather be fighting for the army that evaluates all options to come up with the most effective way to accomplish an objective rather than one that dogmatically clings to ineffective methods.

In other words: if the winning side uses letters and the losing side uses phones, I'd rather be on the letter writer's side.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#22

Post by demaga » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

parentheses wrote: post #13

Building a team to operate based on your own personal preferences is selfish leadership... or even dictatorship. There's a very strong "focus culture" which relies on the idea that work is not done in meetings. This is wrong. Progress comes in many forms.

Is it even possible to build a team and _not_ operate based on own personal preferences?

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#23

Post by heisenbit » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:16 PM UTC

It is so comforting to deal with known unknowns particularly when the unknown unknowns are the ones that get you.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#24

Post by SoftTalker » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

john_strinlai wrote: post #14

> In the end, a 10-minute call can cost me several hours of focus. And I might spend the entire day thinking about it. does anyone else have their entire day sidelined by a 10-minute call? is that common? to me, it hints at something else, but i am not sure if i am the odd one out or not.

Yes. I worked in an agile shop some years ago. We did daily stand-ups at 10:00. So, you arrive in the morning, and can't really get deeply into anything because stand-up is coming up. Then stand-up ends and you maybe have a sidebar conversation at the coffee machine, you get back to your desk and now lunch is coming up, so you look for some stuff you can do quickly, maybe read your email, check HN, whatever. After lunch you might get a few unbroken hours to really make progress on something, but half the time it's interrupted by code reviews, planning poker, or some other agile ceremony and the same sort of effect occurs.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#25

Post by iwontberude » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:20 PM UTC

john_strinlai wrote: post #14

> In the end, a 10-minute call can cost me several hours of focus. And I might spend the entire day thinking about it. does anyone else have their entire day sidelined by a 10-minute call? is that common? to me, it hints at something else, but i am not sure if i am the odd one out or not.

I used to be like that early in my career around 25. By now I am nearly 40 and that doesn’t remotely cross my mind. I’ve had to do so many social events that I am numb to it. It used to cause tons of anxiety/rumination though. When in doubt vape hella weed and you will forget about your worries. That seems to be the solution to all of my life’s problems.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#26

Post by ipsento606 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

avens19 wrote: post #16

English is vague, even when accounting for that fact. It's much more difficult to detect or correct misunderstandings over text. My biggest issue with this concept is time. You write your wall of text, I see that you've failed to account for some factor, so I write my wall of text. You don't completely understand my wall of text and ask for clarification. Back and forth, asynchronously. In a call this can be resolved…

>It's much more difficult to detect or correct misunderstandings over text.

I really couldn't disagree more strongly. I think it's much easier to correct misunderstandings over text. In a spoken discussion, there is a high degree of temporal entropy - the longer it's been since you made a point, the worse my recollection of your exact point may be. Detail and nuance is lost. But if you write your point down, I can refer to it at any point without any real loss of information.

In my experience, it's relatively common for two people to leave a spoken discussion thinking they have a strong, shared understanding, and only much later do they realize that's not the case.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#27

Post by ipsento606 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

john_strinlai wrote: post #14

> In the end, a 10-minute call can cost me several hours of focus. And I might spend the entire day thinking about it. does anyone else have their entire day sidelined by a 10-minute call? is that common? to me, it hints at something else, but i am not sure if i am the odd one out or not.

> does anyone else have their entire day sidelined by a 10-minute call? is that common?

It's extremely common for me.

It really comes down to the point made in the article. If you have five or six calls already, the marginal cost of one more call is very low. If you have no calls, the marginal cost of one more call is very high.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#28

Post by ninalanyon » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

avens19 wrote: post #16

English is vague, even when accounting for that fact. It's much more difficult to detect or correct misunderstandings over text. My biggest issue with this concept is time. You write your wall of text, I see that you've failed to account for some factor, so I write my wall of text. You don't completely understand my wall of text and ask for clarification. Back and forth, asynchronously. In a call this can be resolved…

I have the opposite experience. Phone calls almost always leave me feeling that something important has been left out. But there is no record so I can't re-read it to find out if I forgot or if it was just not mentioned. Luckily I rarely had to deal with such things because most of my work required written specifications and technical standards anyway, plus our teams were scattered in widely different time zones so the windows for live contacts were small.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#29

Post by mindtricks » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

If you don't like calls, then ask the person requesting it to email/message you want you want to discuss and any decisions that you're hoping to make it from it before accepting it. It's not much, but at least you now have a focus for the call. If you disagree that a call is needed, tell them and request to handle it over async comm lines.

It's possible the other party is dealing with some complex or ambiguous and a call is often helpful to talk through and get them focused quickly. If you still hate calls though, as them to send a write up summary of the call and continue any further conversations that way.

There are so many ways to handle these interactions with just a little give and take.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#30

Post by bonesss » Mon, May 25, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

davidhunter wrote: post #6

Using your analogy, imagine it's the year 2026. Two armies are fighting. One uses letter to communicate. One uses phones. Which army do you want to fight in? This is an obviously poor policy.

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