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Comment by xvilka | Hacker News Reader

In 99.99999% cases it could have been email or an IM chat. Except maybe sales and customer meetings because clients love to talk to real people.

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That's the trouble. Our boss loves talking to real people and hates reading.

I'm thinking about cargo-culting Amazon's "Everyone has to read this before the meeting" or maybe just preparing a statement like, "This is my status update, plus type your questions out and don't interrupt me, this will take exactly 90 seconds..."

Amazon’s policy is even better than that (IMO). They know that no one reads things before meetings, so it’s accepted that everyone will quietly read for the first part of the meeting (as much as half the total meeting duration). Then (and only then) when everyone has finished reading the same material does anyone speak up to ask questions or share input. Saves a lot of time in meetings, although it adds a lot of time in preparing documents. I suspect it probably nets out to positive time savings and am confident it results in more informed decision-making.

Source: I’m an Amazon employee

> Saves a lot of time in meetings, although it adds a lot of time in preparing documents. I suspect it probably nets out to positive time savings

I pretty much won't take a meeting without some kind of prep work from the organizer.

Otherwise, the meeting is just a form of procrastination.

> They know that no one reads things before meetings

Does anyone ever read the thing, realize they have no relevant feedback or other reason to be in the meeting, and just get up and leave?

Not that i've seen, no.

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