71–80 of 86 posts
* When possible ask questions that can be answered yes or no.
* One question per email. My experience is that multiple questions in an email are rarely answered in full.
* Use simple words. Many people you work with, or write for, have English as a second language.
* Don't use "it" in a sentence. Replace "it" with the noun you're referring to.
There are sizable open source projects which do all coordination asynchronously. There are no synchronous meetings, even online. The military takes writing seriously.[1] People write things which are acted upon by others. The reader needs to understand clearly what is intended. Especially when they are out of communication with the sender. It's worth understanding the military five-paragraph order format.[2] Not beca…
The military has also been responsible for some rather gruesome crimes against the written word [0]: > Vanilla flavoring shall be pure or artificial vanilla in such quantities that its presence shall be organoleptically detected, but not to a pronounced degree. > Candied cherries shall be made from pitted cherries. They shall be thoroughly processed with sugars to a soluble solids content of not less than 72 percent…
I'm bet at some point the candied cherries being used were too small (e.g. a supplier dumping their leftovers) and so they had to get specific about the requirement.
There are sizable open source projects which do all coordination asynchronously. There are no synchronous meetings, even online. The military takes writing seriously.[1] People write things which are acted upon by others. The reader needs to understand clearly what is intended. Especially when they are out of communication with the sender. It's worth understanding the military five-paragraph order format.[2] Not beca…
The military has also been responsible for some rather gruesome crimes against the written word [0]: > Vanilla flavoring shall be pure or artificial vanilla in such quantities that its presence shall be organoleptically detected, but not to a pronounced degree. > Candied cherries shall be made from pitted cherries. They shall be thoroughly processed with sugars to a soluble solids content of not less than 72 percent…
It is very detailed, but isn't that the point of a spec? The alternative is getting/accepting a low bid where the vendor puts in a homeopathic dose of vanilla and one lousy cherry, resulting big profits for them but a deliverable that's almost entirely but not quite, unlike fruitcake.
You could imagine a different system, where somebody tastes existing fruitcakes from different bakers, then picks one that seems like a good value for the money. However, there is still the problem of ensuring that the delivered product matches the sample.
Moreover, it could, in theory) allow for corruption--how do you know the taster and baker aren't colluding? The US (and especially DoD) are set up to avoid that sort of "individual corruption", at the expense of much more bureaucracy. This isn't totally successful--somebody will instead lobby to reduce the maximum cherry size to 1/3 inch to exclude a competitor--but at least it's an ethos.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
After a sync meeting, I find that it can be useful to note down your key takeaways in an email sent to the other party for confirmation. ("For posterity, this is what we just discussed: ...".)
That's called Minutes[1] and is super helpful to have. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutes
I work with many people who are against writing; they never write anything and they only want to do sync meetings (phone/in person); I am on the tech team usually which makes that even more painful as 'talking through tech' is a horrible thing. Nothing sticks as everyone needs time to think about things. Inevitably, after a while, you get people losing track of things that were actually said, that were actually agree…
Writing minutes is useful but has its limitations. A few years ago I worked with two technically brilliant but somewhat unpleasant guys. After a while I realized it was a good idea to write down everything so I made sure I coukd always point to a mail or something. Turned out even that had its limitations. At one point we discussed something and I ponted the older one of them to a mail where I had described it. His a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing minutes is useful but has its limitations. A few years ago I worked with two technically brilliant but somewhat unpleasant guys. After a while I realized it was a good idea to write down everything so I made sure I coukd always point to a mail or something. Turned out even that had its limitations. At one point we discussed something and I ponted the older one of them to a mail where I had described it. His a…
You've made a cardinal mistake of not sharing the minutes right after the meeting or, even better, as a last point of the meeting itself. Would that happen, you could reply: "Well, this is what you saw and accepted before."
He was well informed and acknowledged as much, he just still tried to twist it around to a situation where he was right.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's called Minutes[1] and is super helpful to have. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutes
Ah, I'm not a native speaker, but I'd always thought minutes are what the notes a meeting's scribe takes during the meeting. Thanks for the correction.
There are sizable open source projects which do all coordination asynchronously. There are no synchronous meetings, even online. The military takes writing seriously.[1] People write things which are acted upon by others. The reader needs to understand clearly what is intended. Especially when they are out of communication with the sender. It's worth understanding the military five-paragraph order format.[2] Not beca…
The military has also been responsible for some rather gruesome crimes against the written word [0]: > Vanilla flavoring shall be pure or artificial vanilla in such quantities that its presence shall be organoleptically detected, but not to a pronounced degree. > Candied cherries shall be made from pitted cherries. They shall be thoroughly processed with sugars to a soluble solids content of not less than 72 percent…
That's 0.5 inch. DoD is all metric.
> Less commas. More periods. Fewer commas, surely.
I have three replies, in no particular order. 1: > We document projects in Notion. We send meeting invites with a written description of the purpose. Hah! I can't remember the last time I saw well-maintained collaborative documentation at a client. And I am among a small handful of people I know who provide descriptions of meeting invites. 2: I looooove written communication with others who are competent. I have an u…
Did you try sending them voice messages instead, possibly via some TTS service?
(originally intended as joke, but now that I think about it... - especially since I sometimes use a STT service for voice messages I receive)