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Comment by nottorp | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand. Why do you allow Slack to interrupt you? Turn off all notifications except the unread messages count badge and check it when it overflows.

Easy as ABC.

I run like 6 different messaging platforms, but none is allowed to interrupt me. If you can't restrain yourself from checking messages constantly, you have a problem not the medium.

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I think there's a legitimate FOMO involved with not quickly reading messages. I say legitimate because it's not just missing out on inconsequential chatter. Slack is a business tool and business decisions get make over slack. The folks that read every messages and respond quickly are therefore the ones that get to contribute the most to decisions.

When waiting too long to respond, the conversation has already changed and it's too late to contribute. And Slack's threads don't solve that problem IMHO.

>I think there's a legitimate FOMO involved with not quickly reading messages.

Call me rigid, but isn't the ability to overcome this kind of silly stuff exactly what separates well-adjusted adults from everyone else?

When you catch yourself doing things out of FOMO, take your dispositions and fix it. In this case: close the app, or configure the alerts.

I'm sometimes alarmed by how people seem to have zero self-knowledge and appear to run on auto-pilot, guided by base impulses.

That’s by design. We live in a culture that treats everyone like children because adults are too difficult to manage and manipulate.

You're missing the key modifier: legitimate. It's not an irrational fear of missing out; it is a very real concern about a culture where being less responsive on Slack reduces your influence on key business decisions. "Close the app" is only good advice if you both want to and can afford to opt-out of any involvement in those decisions.

Agreed. There are times I only join conference calls to ensure that no work gets assigned to me without me hearing about it first, or that I have the ability to chime in as work is being assigned. I implemented this policy when it became clear that work was being assigned to me (imo incorrectly) because I wasn't there to say no.

If decisions are being made over Slack, I have to be involved or suddenly I may find myself responsible for something I have no control over. Simply because I was not there to let people know who actually is responsible.

That's a good point. I guess I'm luckier than many in this respect.

I can't even imagine working in such an organization and staying sane.

You are absolutely correct. The real issue is a cultural one not one based on tools. At some companies, employees expect 10 second response times to all questions. This is so that they can be more efficient. But that efficiency comes at the cost of the answerer's efficiency. If all people just have Slack "off" all day, doesn't that largely defeat the purpose? Why not just use something else? (Not making a judgment on whether Slack is good or bad, it is what it is)

It’s not that easy. Nobody is talking about app settings here. It’s about how companies essentially delegate communication preferences and etiquette to Slack without much discussion.

> Turn off all notifications except the unread messages count badge and check it when it overflows.

...then keep a straight face while your super Agile manager berates you in front of the entire team because you're hard to communicate with, we have Slack for a reason.

Not everyone has the choice to not allow Slack to interrupt you. Some organizations mandate this sort of communication, disruptive though it may be.

Edit: just to clarify, I'm not in this situation :-D. But I've seen it happening.

Then turn on notifications for when you are @mentioned, or specific important channels. If someone really wants to get your attention, they can. The noise is filtered out and doesn't reach you unless you reach for it.

If your nature of work is such that you need to be available then I get that your manager would berate you. It might not be what someone likes to do but for some it is better to be available to the team than to isolate themselves and work.

I understand the expectation of having the application open on your workstation while you're at the office, but having notifications enables on your personal phone is not sane.

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