Hacker News Reader

Comment by prpl | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think there is a good solution here. I realized that I must have a 90th-95th percentile memory when compared to my coworkers, but it frankly doesn’t matter if I write things in chat or a long form document, it’s often lost to much of my team.

I have come to realize the best path forward is likely pair programming/working meetings (remotely) because writing things down and repeatedly referencing them doesn’t stick

View on HN

I have a decent memory but my attention span has been decimated. I find myself tuning out on calls and looking at anything else. Then I come back to reality and realize I have missed something important. Recently I have started closing my eyes while on zoom (camera off). It has really helped me focus and pay attention. this breaks down of course when someone is sharing their screen. I find that a solution to this is to turn my camera on as it forces me to pay attention or people will see me with my head turned to the side. Incidentally it also forces me to shower and shave most days, something that has really fallen off since going remote and covid. I almost never leave the house so my presentation suffered. Only time I cleaned up is if I was going to the gym. So I was somehow in the best shape of my life while also looking like a homeless person when forced on camera.

Both have helped, still not perfect but its better.

I had this issue when I had a larger team to manage. I'm also one of those who remembers an email that was sent 3 years ago by some random guy listing all these useful things. However,it doesn't work for most people. The communication needs some guidance too 1) anything quick and simple- chat 2) something more complex - email 3) something complex and likely to stay relevant long in the future - knowledge base, documentation, etc 4) major announcement- medium matters less but they need to be stored somewhere for people to refer to later.

Communication requires enforcement too: I had people in my team that kept saying that they weren't told about x,y,and z. If those are repeated behaviours( they usually are), they need to be managed accordingly so people would start take it seriously.

It's not a memory issue- it's an attention issue. I'm on the other spectrum from you- I have clinically diagnosed terrible memory. I write and read a lot to compensate. If you are writing something down- things are getting lost to your team because they are not taking the time to read and process what you wrote.

I'm also finding that the best path forward is to pair frequently- because a lot of people just don't read. Also, it's important to note that with writing things down for people, referencing is just as important as the content. If something is written in a slack conversation- they are unlikely to go searching back months for it- when they could just ask you again! When something is documented in a structured and easily memorable manner however...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com