I manage teams without a single call • Hacker News Board

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#51

Post by ventana » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

The majority of the software development related communications are trivial enough, emotionless, and do not require calls, but there are cases where one quick call resolves ambiguity much faster than hours of typing.

While I do know a feeling of dreading the upcoming call, especially if this is a call that I know won't be useful or rewarding for me personally ("let's quickly go through this infinite list of jira tickets", "let's do a quick round table"), it's important to remember that texting, including all sorts of corporate messengers, is one of the worst media to transmit emotions. Seeing another person's face while talking to them and their reactions to your jokes or struggles is sometimes as important as the message being transmitted. Of course, the camera must be turned on for this to work.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#52

Post by Npovview » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

jancsika wrote: post #50

Npovview wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many survival strategies in nature. Richard Dawkins, coined the concept of extended phenotype which proposes that genes do not just build physical bodies, but actively shape the outside world to ensure their propagation.

I would counter that abstracting out several levels to cite Dawkins on a story about management styles isn't about management styles as much as it is about the friends you make along the way. :)

Patterns patterning - Zen mode. Beat this abstraction.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#53

Post by dasil003 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

I'm all for fewer (and smaller) meetings, but there is a time and place for synchronous communication. Especially quick informal communication can be incredibly high leverage. Optimizing for heads down time is great if everyone knows exactly what they should be heads down on and thinks the same way, but that is not always the case.

If you call yourself a manager--which is a questionable role at startups--then you need to be optimizing for the entire output of the team. Rigidly declaring everything must be async text is no better than scrum by numbers.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#54

Post by yolo3000 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #17

This ignores the human side of things - people want relationships, empathy and sometimes just to be listened to. A call with your manager where they say "yes, I agree with everything you said - go ahead and do it, I trust you" can mean much more than the same thing said in a text message.

For me the best moments at work have been when the direct manager was sick or on a very long holiday. We're adults, why would I need someone to tell me 'I agree with you', 'go ahead, I trust you'. Maybe if you don't know what you're doing, or you can't manage the stakeholders, but otherwise, the manager just gets in the way, unless they know how to make themselves invisible, or they have the connections and will to propel your career forwards I've had plenty of managers in 20+ years

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#55

Post by tobadzistsini » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

People like calls because there is no accountability. "Oh, I was just spitballing" or "This is how I interpreted what they said despite doing a left turn at Albuquerque". An email or memo can be skimmed, or searched, for context thereby holding people's feet to a proverbial fire. Even if a call is being recorded for posterity, each party on the call runs the risk of inciting the ire of whoever was forced to listen and judge both participants. Nobody wins because someone was forced to listen to ten minutes of meaningless crap that could have been an email, much like a YouTube video intending to be helpful but has 5 minutes of sponsor shout-outs, like, rate, and subscribe, an unnecessary explainer before getting to the topic at hand that some Bulgarian uploaded ten years ago and lasts fewer than ninety seconds.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#56

Post by Aurornis » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #17

This ignores the human side of things - people want relationships, empathy and sometimes just to be listened to. A call with your manager where they say "yes, I agree with everything you said - go ahead and do it, I trust you" can mean much more than the same thing said in a text message.

I think it’s good if the phone call heavy people can find their way to phone call heavy managers, while the people who communicate well without constant phone calls can group together and work that way.

There’s a third category of people who actually need a lot of communication for different reasons (constant reassurance like you highlighted or maybe contestant management to keep them on track) but who also avoid communications like the plague. These are the hardest to manage without some rhythm of mandatory check ins.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#57

Post by dijksterhuis » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

ipsento606 wrote: post #26

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 re…

yeah i agree. i’ve had so many instances where i’ve got off a call and then a week later the person

* has a fundamentally different understanding of the facts discussed [0]

* has forgotten the important facts even when they were highlighted as important

* has completely forgotten most of the conversation, sometimes even forgetting we had a conversation

* has just made some shit up in their head that was never even talked about

… and once again i’d have to go over the whole thing again for an hour, so we’re back where we started a week later. this is normal “fuzzy human brain stuff”. people forget details over the course of a week, especially new details.

but yeah; if it’s not written down it doesn’t exist is my mantra now.

[0]: note to say this was not because they went and spoke to someone else and got more detail, other opinions etc. the detail would just get warped in their brain over the course of a week.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#58

Post by hackerbeat » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:21 PM UTC

Sad world.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#59

Post by simianwords » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:22 PM UTC

What I have learned is that there are different people and project managing strategies for differently competent or motivated people.

Purpose driven mature developers do not need complicated project management or Jira. Famously, the Google Chrome team is an example. All the ceremony is only for plebs like us who are somewhat of cattle that need constant guidance.

Re: I manage teams without a single call

#60

Post by Rohansi » Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:24 PM UTC

darkwater wrote: post #39

Rohansi wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another is that people are not automata. Humans require inspiration and motivation and you need to reinforce the vision of what you are building and why. Its also even sometimes a reasonable idea to ask about how their life is going and check up on their family and pets and career aspirations. And you need meetings to do all of this? There are so many other ways to communicate which you make more use of when you ar…

> And you need meetings to do all of this? There are so many other ways to communicate which you make more use of when you are less dependent on meetings. It's not a choice between meetings and extreme social anxiety. Yes, "this meeting could have been an email", async communication and all that jazz. Nonetheless stating that a 10 minutes quick chat is going to be the center of that day for you definitely signals soc…

> stating that a 10 minutes quick chat is going to be the center of that day for you definitely signals social anxiety.

It really doesn't. You may not be aware of it but you quite literally have to structure your work day around your meetings because the meetings are fixed time blocks where you have to go and do something else. If you were in the zone, having a productive day, you are absolutely going to have a big slump (maybe) leading up to the meeting and after the meeting.

> Yes, "this meeting could have been an email", async communication and all that jazz.

That would be ideal for most cases! But even informal calls (messaging "can we hop on a call?) could be better because they are less overhead to book, not a commitment, have some preparation/context already in messages, etc.