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0 pointswalrus016y ago0 comments

Personal opinion, you don't need video or talking heads to have a conference. Some combination of text chat to share documents with simultaneous good quality audio is sufficient.

The challenges related to audio sucking are mostly individual end users' audio stepping on itself, such as feedback from speakerphone configurations into its own microphone. Easily solved by good quality bluetooth headsets, wired headsets, or simply using something as basic as holding an android or ios phone up to your ear.

And I do put "video quality is consistently good" in the category of "makes peoples' lives slightly more convenient". It's not essential.

0 comments

softwaredoug6y ago

I disagree. To build connection, read body language, and show people are paying attention it’s important to see the person... we ask that of all of our internal remote calls.

fock6y ago

oh yeah, let's try to look each other into the eyes. ooooh no, seems that doesn't work. And "show people paying attention": why do a conference at all if people have no stake in it?

berdon6y ago

VC > Audio > Text

Tone, emotion, and intent are incapable of being conveyed properly without facial expressions and audible cues.

dougmany6y ago

Audio < Text when too many people are trying to communicate at the same time.

<rant> We are supposed to be engineers here. I regularly see this attitude that one thing is always and inherently better than another. Life is (mostly) a zero sum game and it is our job to pick a solution for the problem at hand. And the more we can constrain that problem, the better, cheaper, more reliably we can deliver a solution. More information is not better. Maybe for interview body language is important but for deciding what story to pull or what commits you did? Not really.

</rant>

berdon6y ago

Deciding what story to pull generally revolves around conversations during sprint planning or with a product manager. What commits you did means you're committing which means you probably (should) have had code reviews. Often times code reviews involve discussions.

If you're one of the few people that don't have person-to-person interaction on a daily basis - congratulations. However, that places you firmly in the minority.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

softwaredoug6y ago

I disagree. To build connection, read body language, and show people are paying attention it’s important to see the person... we ask that of all of our internal remote calls.

fock6y ago

oh yeah, let's try to look each other into the eyes. ooooh no, seems that doesn't work. And "show people paying attention": why do a conference at all if people have no stake in it?

berdon6y ago

VC > Audio > Text

Tone, emotion, and intent are incapable of being conveyed properly without facial expressions and audible cues.

dougmany6y ago

Audio < Text when too many people are trying to communicate at the same time.

</rant>

berdon6y ago

If you're one of the few people that don't have person-to-person interaction on a daily basis - congratulations. However, that places you firmly in the minority.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse