lukethomas

Author here - the point of the article was to outline a super basic process to understand what people are working on and what can be expected of them. You may notice in the article that the individual opts-in to what they'd like to accomplish. That's the starting point.

We don't use Jira. We don't do scrums. We have one meeting every week. We definitely aren't a sweatshop.

I care deeply about making sure people are performing at their best, but in a way that's considerate of their lives outside of work. Process is required, but the level of process is negotiable and this post aims to outline the minimum process needed that's also respectful of the individual.

I experienced similar. My son is 16 months, and it's gotten way more fun.

Great post talking about the value of an internal "communication architecture."

Related post worth checking out: https://medium.com/@gokulrajaram/designing-a-communication-a...

Thanks for the kind words ;)

There's a bit more to the article, which I've summarized below:

1. Determine if the meeting is process-oriented or mission-oriented. If the meeting is process-oriented, you probably shouldn't reject the request.

2. If the meeting is mission-oriented, ask the meeting organizer for an agenda via email, which will help you figure out if you are necessary/required. It also creates a paper trail.

3. If you decide you aren't necessary, politely decline with enough advance notice to be able to address pushback.

If you didn't like this, I'm sorry. I wrote this right after I got into a mess rejecting a meeting request at a previous job, so I wrote down everything I should have done differently.

I am an extrovert and have found value in discussion with others. The issue is that this tends to be aimless and there's zero structure, which wastes a ridiculous amount of time.

I'd much rather complete an async update and then follow-up with an in-person meeting to talk about the things that were documented beforehand.

It's a much more efficient approach and you get better insights too.

There's some truth to this, but holy smokes, another meeting is not the cure.

There is value in "venting" at work. A few years ago I built a software tool that pings people at the end of the week asking how their week went. Some of the quietest people in the company had the most to say when they were behind a screen. In fact, some people literally called it therapeutic. It turns out that writing things down can serve as a form of "therapy" (source: https://positivepsychology.com/writing-therapy/)

If you lead a team, I'd strongly recommend you have a feedback mechanism like this in place, but a meeting is not the right medium. It's just a place for the extroverts to complain.

If you do hold a meeting for this stuff, a 1-1 is probably the best way to surface a similar level of information.

Good idea - I will write about this shortly. I've written a "how to" post, but it's mediocre.

Hey, I'm the author of the post and have been working remotely for 6 years.

There is no replacement for meeting up in person periodically. Anyone who tells you it's not a key requirement of remote work is foolish. Smart teams + companies have figured this out and do regular meetups.

With that being said, there are ways to "maintain" relationships with coworkers. I wrote a big post about this last week you might like: https://www.friday.app/build-relationships-remote-team

It really depends on the meeting. Meetings that revolve around basic information sharing (typically the recurring ones) like status updates or daily scrum can 100% be replaced with a written update. These are the meetings people hate.

A great meeting is when the right number of people discuss an ambiguous problem that requires a fast feedback loop (body language, tone, etc) in order to achieve the desired meeting outcome.

I'd also argue that poor documentation is a result of lack of structure (something asynchronous communication can provide much better vs. synchronous comm)

Here's a helpful rule of thumb for when to use synchronous communication:

Is the conversation ambiguous and is there a high likelihood that you will be misunderstood?

An obvious tell for this is when you go back-and-forth over Slack/chat for a few minutes and people still feel like they are on another page.

I strongly recommend checking out media richness theory. It presents a helpful way to think about what communication medium is most appropriate for a given scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_richness_theory

The biggest difference between the two campaigns was that in the 2012 campaign these APIs were available, while in 2013-2015, Facebook shut down the friends API, with a few exceptions. The only reason CA got access to it was that it was for "research purposes".

In other words, CA lied about the intended use. From a data collection standpoint, it was the same thing Obama's campaign did in 2012 for get out the vote efforts.

This is exactly what's happening. More meetings + synchronous chat/calling apps won't solve this either.

For anyone interested in mental models, I strongly recommend checking out Askeladden Capital's website (http://www.askeladdencapital.com/). He's written something like 500k words on it.

If you're curious to learn more, here's an interesting research paper that goes into more detail: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/CLASSDOCS/Clark91.pdf

The reason why more companies are remote-first is that the manager's schedule is easier to do in the office. Put simply, the people running the teams/companies prefer many of the advantages that being in-person provides.

I wrote more about this here: https://www.fridayfeedback.com/p/how-to-make-remote-work-mor...

SEEKING FREELANCER

Remote: yes

Stack: Rails/React/Postgres/AWS.

Friday (fridayfeedback.com) is async communication software for teams who want to spend less time in boring status update meetings and more time doing deep work. We're rebuilding the app and could use some help :)

Specifically, we could use some help us with backend engineering/architectural decisions. I'm flexible on hours and when you work, but for the Summer, up to 20 hours/week would be ideal.

If you're interested, I'd be happy to talk more luke [at] myfridayfeedback [dot] com.

At the past 3 places I've worked, we've setup Snowplow Analytics (https://snowplowanalytics.com/) and would strongly recommend it over GA, Segment, and other third-party systems.

If you're looking for a first-party system, Snowplow is an amazing setup.

I've been using Stripe Atlas since the beta and I have experienced a few issues similar to the OP. However, I've also saved a ton of time because Stripe emails me about pending issues/changes that I probably wouldn't have known about.

SVB is ok - the fee is annoying and their UI kind of sucks, but I haven't switched yet.

The level of management book B.S is off the charts, but I would strongly recommend you pick up High Output Management, by Andy Grove. Use this as a foundation.

Next, I would recommend a few things:

- hold 1-1s with each person on your team on a regular basis. This is by far the best way to build good relationships with each person on your team. You will also get a lot more insights too.

- Ask each person on your team what their goals are in the next X months/years. Then do everything you can to help them reach it.

- Constantly be soliciting feedback about where you can improve.

Most of the books/articles you read will give general advice, which varies depending on the individual/team. Here's what I typically recommend:

1. Create a continuous feedback loop with every single person on your team. This is why 1-1 meetings are extremely helpful.

2. Understand where each person on your team wants to go (career goals). Do they want to become X in 2 years? Do they even want to work in tech at all? Find ways to help them get there.

3. Document all the important conversations you have. Share it with the person. Most miscommunication happens when you talk about something and it's interpreted in various ways. Documenting these conversations and sharing them helps cut down on this.

4. Act like you care about them as a person.

Great point - the reason why no one is talking about this is because they have NO IDEA if the manager is good or not.

Many assume the people that they hire are flawless. That's why you see all the posts on hiring. It's easy for people to think they know everything at this point. It's like celebrating after you acquire a customer...what really matters is if they stay (and how long).

Currently, there's no feedback loop in place to surface this information. Some companies will do a culture or 360 survey that highlights a few issues here and there, but it's a poor process for determining competence and it's administered by HR (or some function of HR). It needs to be owned by the team leader (and hopefully their boss).

I've been working on an app (https://www.fridayfeedback.com) for the last three years to try to help this. Eng teams love it because it's asynchronous and surfaces new insights to help teams improve.

I wrote something similar over the weekend about how remote teams are great for people on a maker's schedule, but people on a manager's schedule tend to dislike it.

https://fridayfeedback.com/p/how-to-make-remote-work-more-co...

I think finding this balance is the crux of the remote work experience. Meetings are necessary, but where is the line drawn? Collaboration is important, but do you need to have whiteboarding sessions to get things done?

I believe that there are great places to work (like the example you gave). What I tried to convey in the article is that this is not a result of HR departments sending out surveys and trying to "engage" people. It's a much more natural, intentional thing that starts at the top.

I should have clarified this a bit more in my post. I think it's possible for people to perform at a high-level and be "engaged" at work, even if the company isn't constantly winning like the warriors.

The only analogy I can think of is another sports one. I used to do track & field. I wasn't the fastest guy running, but I still pushed myself to beat my previous records. I felt a sense of progress/fulfillment when I ran faster than the past.

I think this can exist inside a company as well. It's highly unlikely that people find fulfillment by the mission of a company, but they can find some sense of fulfillment (at least in a work context), by "playing the game their way" and continuously improving.

Good idea, I've also been hearing for a while that collaborative workspaces improve employee engagement, which is garbage.

I built an app to help people take a digital detox ~ 3 years ago (https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/01/12/need-unplug-...)

The biggest issue we ran into was that we didn't have API access to build something effective (at least from limiting smartphone access). We had to hack something together and it didn't work out long-term.

If the tech giants cared enough about this, they would create APIs and empower devs to build stuff to help.

Thanks for the recommendation! Will take a look.

I've worked remotely for almost 7 years, for a few companies. Loneliness is a real thing, especially for people who are more outgoing/social.

Here's what I've found works for me:

1. work at a coworking space/coffee shop. Be around people. Get out of the house some.

2. Watercooler conversations don't happen automatically. I try to schedule a coffee meeting 1x/week with someone.

3. If you manage a team, you need to understand what's going on with each person. For the past 3 years I've been building a tool for distributed teams (https://www.fridayfeedback.com) that people have referred to as "therapy for remote teams". It's shocking what you can discover if you ask people, "what's going on" on a regular basis.

4. Quarterly or semi-annual meetups can help significantly. I want to get to know the people I work with. It's super important to be reminded that these are REAL people, not avatars on a screen.

If you're interested in investing in the stock market (specifically picking individual stocks), I recommend the following books:

1. https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Still-Beats-Market/dp/047...

2. https://www.amazon.com/Acquirers-Multiple-Billionaire-Contra...

Yup - I do believe that FB is severing their relationship with these data brokers shortly, so unsure if this will continue to be available.