Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens • Hacker News Board

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#221

Post by omginternets » Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 4:54 PM UTC

handoflixue wrote: post #194

omginternets wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there's a legitimate FOMO involved with not quickly reading messages. Call me rigid, but isn't the ability to overcome this kind of silly stuff exactly what separates well-adjusted adults from everyone else? When you catch yourself doing things out of FOMO, take your dispositions and fix it. In this case: close the app, or configure the alerts. I'm sometimes alarmed by how people seem to have zero self-knowl…

You're missing the key modifier: legitimate. It's not an irrational fear of missing out; it is a very real concern about a culture where being less responsive on Slack reduces your influence on key business decisions. "Close the app" is only good advice if you both want to and can afford to opt-out of any involvement in those decisions.

That's a good point. I guess I'm luckier than many in this respect.

I can't even imagine working in such an organization and staying sane.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#222

Post by anotheryou » Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

How about permanent "Do not disturb"?

People can still override it if they have to and you can catch up with all the static whenever it suits you.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#223

Post by gamma3 » Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #220

gamma3 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to have structured conversations by always using threads. I've convinced everyone at two companies so far (50 and 20 people) to never reply directly in a channel, and always use threads: https://medium.com/@martinkonicek/how-to-slack-6f5bf9be71ba

How do I get my coworkers to do that?

One way would be to share the article with them and explain that replies directly in a channel make it harder for you to catch up. Saying that threads make it easier and quicker for you to decide what to read.

I usually start by proposing an idea to a small group of people - e.g. my team or people at the company I think might like the idea. Only after a few people say they like the idea and start using threads, propose the idea to more people and say "look, a few of us are using threads and it works".

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#224

Post by osmyn » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 1:50 PM UTC

This is a big reason behind why I created https://ourtimetothink.com - a tool for teams on Slack to manage their DND status for scheduled blocks of time each day so they can get some deep work done

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#225

Post by exachtly » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

This article seems to be unaware that there are many jobs which exist solely for doing shallow work. I'd say for most "knowledge work" or "white collar" jobs shallow work is the point. A job that demands deep work consistently is pretty rare (see: Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber). In that respect, Slack is a perfect fit for most employees.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#226

Post by jbay808 » Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 1:01 AM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #171

jbay808 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "that stuff", do you mean "technical communications you have had with colleagues", such as what Slack or email might otherwise be used for? That is what the GP was referring to. It's hard to imagine using a wiki for that, but if that's how you do things I guess it's fine. As long as it doesn't rely on people copying their email discussions to wikis manually. Not sure how you'd be alerted by an important wiki updat…

Let's use a concrete example. A new engineer joins your company and needs to set up a dev environment. This environment has changed many times over the years. Do you point them to Slack, Email, a Wiki, or a shared Google doc? In any sane company, it is one of the latter.

Replying a little late, but we are discussing

"technical conversations I have had with my colleagues where I can go to recover details I might not remember from a month ago. Then again email also does this just fine, and doesn't cost as much."

For static instructions like setting up a dev environment? Sure a wiki is perfect. But I don't use a wiki for technical conversations like "Hey icedchai, I'm getting an error message that the COM port is not detected and I remember you said something about solving it in yesterday's standup. Can you point me to where the fix was?"

That message is better suited for slack or email than a wiki. (Your solution might be in the wiki but I'm contacting you because it wasn't easy to find, or searching for the error message didn't turn it up).

But if I use email, then when we hire a new employee a month later who gets the same error, your answer will be in my records but not theirs.

Another poster suggested a mailing list, that is a good option that makes email viable for this.

Re: Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens

#227

Post by thisismyswamp » Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 9:40 PM UTC

eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #173

davidscolgan wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not Slack encourages workflows (and I can see how it would), I think in order to be an effective human in the modern era _requires_ thinking critically about technology choices and how to use them. Cal Newport's new book Digital Minimalism was a great read about this - be intentional about your tech choices, and be intentional about when and how you use them. Otherwise it's super easy to just get sucked in…

I completely agree, but I don't think that means we should ignore or withhold criticism when a company like Slack has immense power over how other companies operate. We should be scrutinizing the decisions they make because it does affect us. Many of these decisions you refer to are not made by the individual employee, but by the team lead, PM, or the executives, who are not always very connected to how those decisio…

But slack isn't supported by ads is it? Why would investors care about increasing engagement/screen time?

I would think they would care more about adoption of the service across more kinds of companies.