(A.K.A. Non-Original Rants)

–Co-opting good stuff from all over the ‘Net and maybe some original thoughts—ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

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Signal and Noise

It’s surprisingly easy for communication to break down in today’s world. We have so many tools — email, text, phone, FaceTime, Teams, Zoom, Slack — yet despite (or maybe because of) this abundance, we often mistake activity for connection.

As a remote employee, I’ve seen firsthand that face-to-face interaction matters. For my first year, I was required to meet in person once a month, and I now make it a point to connect with coworkers over Teams video as often as possible to maintain that human connection. There’s a reason for that: some kinds of communication simply don’t translate well over email or text.

In business, there’s a saying: if something takes more than three emails, it’s time to pick up the phone or jump on a video call. And if you’re close enough? Meet in person. Why? Because something gets lost in the sterility of written messages — nuance, tone, subtle signals, shared understanding.

Email and text are great for small, transactional things. But they’re not a replacement for real conversation. They’re just an imitation of true communication.

Emails often seem like the perfect way to explain things clearly, but the truth is, real understanding takes more than just words on a screen. It needs that human connection you just can’t get from typing back and forth. Sometimes, you just need to hear someone’s voice or see their face and look them in the eye— because that’s where real understanding lives.



22 responses to “Signal and Noise”

  1. It must be a boomer thing and I am a boomer.
    Preferred method of communications if face to face is not possible
    1) Phone call
    2) Email
    3) Text

    That appears to be the opposite of most people these days.
    Before I retired I had a contract worker tell me he would send me a text on an ongoing issue. I told him I would send him a stop work order if he didn’t pick up his damn phone and call me. The electronic messages were not conveying the necessary urgency.

    Disclaimer: I never learned to type because I never wanted to be a clerk and my spelling is atrocious. This may have something to do with my outlook.

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  2. Gerry–I consider myself Gen X, but am right at the front end. I might switch 2 and 3 on your list depending on the subject but definitely prefer phone calls or Teams/Zoom if face-to-face isn’t a possibility. I’ll be more likely to make a call if texting goes on too long because my thumbs get tired…. 🙂

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    1. That’s the trouble with the young’uns today. They are all text mad … Ahem!

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  3. And before long you’ll need to do face-2-face to make sure they’re not using an AI to do their work.

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    1. steves6–Thus everything goes full circle.

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  4. When you consider the stats as to reading and comprehension of kids in school these days one has to wonder about communications pursuant to the “written word” and how that could possibly be effective at all.

    Currently I’m working to onboard a resource to do CAD work with a young fellow in Pakistan and I will say his level of enthusiasm is commendable. His CAD skills are proficient enough and his language skills are excellent. We work using email and Teams. The latter I am just learning and my mis-steps have been downright comical at times.

    It’s been… _interesting_ for sure but we’re getting through it.

    I have to remember I have been doing CAD work for forty years and been working in my current position for twelve. I fast am learning what it is I know that nobody else does and at every corner it’s like… Oh… that’s right… how on earth would anyone else know something that to me is utterly second nature. Something I do without even having to think about it.. and I now have to think about how to even EXPLAIN it?

    Especially something that is on a VERY advanced level for any AutoCAD user. And these things have my Cadawan Learner pretty much awestruck at this juncture and now he’s REALLY enthused to “pick my brain” as much as he can.

    It does make things easier for sure. Had the “Trainee” I had in-house not walked off the job after four months been as enthusiastic would have been nice. Sadly, not the case. And he was full-time face to face sitting in a desk right next to mine.

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    1. boneman–Yes, proximity does not equal enthusiasm or skill. And yes, trying to explain things that are just second nature to someone is really difficult.

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  5. I wonder what the “established effectiveness time value ratio” of F2F vs E-connect is? Some “business expert” must have written a book (or two) on it…..

    So much additional info gets conveyed F2F I’d expect 3:1 at a minimum. With people who have done F2F, do it periodically, and who have the necessary E-comm skills it could be 1:1 but it doesn’t start there.

    I’m a long time PM, and I’ve been in situations, mostly with pure programmers or analysts, for whom it’s .5:3 or .5:4 – they’re the folks who are most comfortable working by themselves, are hugely knowledgeable, usually at least somewhat on the autism spectrum and fanatically task-oriented – but with them it started at about 5:1 and then very quickly reversed once we “came to understand each other.”

    But that’s not true for most of us. There’s a balance of F2F and E-work that works best but it’s such an individual thing few people in management positions are good at managing such an environment it because it is so individualized. On paper, it would make more sense to have the manager travel for F2F than drag a dozen (or more) people in X times annually for it, but the Group Drag offers opportunities for In-Group F2F that often add great value that I think it’s a necessity, at least at project start and early in, going lower, often to zero, as the project progresses (I’ve watched extremely productive sub-groups form within a team at 2-day Drags that could not be achieved any other way).

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    1. Oliver–I do data and most of us would be considered to be on the spectrum. I think getting everyone out of their comfort zone and into a group situation does help create some good subgroup dynamics.

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  6. I was born in 65 and yeah, it’s always been in person, then phone, and my first couple of jobs that was the only options. Later emails, much later texts and instant messaging.

    Now I mentor kids right out of school and really have to stress to them that instant messaging is nice, but yeah, go talk face to face occasionally. I’ve pointedly ignored some texts and messages in order to get a particular person to come by my office – and they are only 2 doors down the fricking hallway. Hell, with my prior crew we’d just yell up and down the hallway. Much more fun times the new guys don’t understand.

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    1. Don–We used to just yell over the partitions too. New folks definitely don’t get it.

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  7. Not only F2F but with a whiteboard to illustrate concepts

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    1. Tom–And multi-colored markers….

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  8. During my brief tenure at my last job, which I took after being laid off from a 13 year gig at another company, I was greeted one mid morning by the guy on the other side of the wall cube from me with “Hey, XXXX, did you look at the email sent you?” The email was a request for information on some inane issue. I stood up, peeked over the wall and said “you couldn’t just ask me that?” I knew what was going on. He just wanted to have a record of asking me, to cover his ass in case someone asked him about it, since the issue was tangentially his responsibility.

    I quit a couple weeks later, as the place was a hostile environment, made so by the management team, including and especially the President of the company and my bosses boss, two of the largest assholes I’ve ever worked for.

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    1. Nemo–Emails are good for CYAs, but it’s a shame when people think they have to have that backup. Good on ya for realizing the place was all the dysfunction and none of the fun. Management does set the tone.

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  9. Learning from an expert in person is best. When one can not have that, then book learning is ok. But for me, the only way I have ever been able to pick up a discipline is by face to face learning.

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    1. avraham–Different people learning differently for sure.

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  10. Face to face works! It’s hard for someone to lie to you or blow you off when you’re sitting across the desk from them! That is one of the ‘big’ reasons I was successful over a dozen years when coworkers weren’t… Phone calls work, and emails kinda do, but not text.

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    1. NFO–Face to face has a lot of advantages in both business and personal situations.

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  11. “I do data and most of us would be considered to be on the spectrum. “

    I’m an IT PM, and from my vantage point, I think you have to be at minimum, at least somewhat abnormal to be in IT (PMs tend to be anal and have varying degrees of OCD). Otherwise, you’d just get a regular, boring job with the Normal People.

    My term is “Realm of Abnormality” and there are several Realms in IT; everyone seems to have their niche.

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