Slacktyping: I'm typing when you're typing (2018)
github.com
github.com
Note the few days he had to push commits when they were zero commit days.
Even though the site is under construction, it is still very nice, with some enjoyable tunes.
Did you visit the site?
It won't play midi files natively for me in Chrome.
WEBRING!
I haven't heard that in a while.
I'm starting to have flashbacks, hearing the sound of 56kb dialup modems...
Should I keep fighting against this phrase or is it futile?
I do all my work on private repos. My github looks bare. If they want code I'll send them code. If they want my github profile, I'll send them that and tell them all my code is private, hit me up for it/examples.
It is fun and marginally useful. It supports sharing your own terminal in Slack too.
> This message
> is
> sent over a few lines
(awkward pause)
> so that
> I can get in a point
> before you start typing something
Asynchronous means of communication (Github PRs, Jira tickets, dare I say e-mails) mean that I submit a fully-formed thought as a digest, but Slack sometimes becomes a stream of consciousness - one that I have trouble breaking someone out of.
That is the point of chat.
If I want structured longform discourse I use mailing lists.
No communication heuristic will be perfect.
If we're not actively talking, write the whole damn paragraph before you send it! One thing I really dislike is:
> Hey, how's going? > Can I ask you a question on $TOPIC?Will not get an answer from me. Well maybe once, if we've never talked before and that will be along the lines of "just go ahead and ask, don't bother with the chit chat". Most people 'get' this nowadays but there are some hold-outs. I suppose the hold-outs might be more numerous in non-tech companies or in the non-tech departments of those companies.
Just don't. It's still asynchronous.
I don't know why people treat text as different from speaking.
I read much faster than most people can speak though so I consider stream of consciousness in text as way less demanding than doing it in a meeting.
In a DM I am _for sure_ stream of consciousness
edit: also in a #red channel
Lots of fun.
I talk to people in chat like I would IRL.
Personally I only like working with people that don't feel they need a filter. I sure don't have one.
I find it is easier to trust people that say what they think and feel as they think and feel it.
If you think "this code is an insecure joke and I keep trying to convince myself why we should not scrap it all and start over", then say it.
I said that to a CEO once and he admitted he wrote most of that code, thanked me for my candor, and agreed it should be rewritten given how important it had become.
.. I completely agree with what you wrote. Just please skip the niceties and write the whole request in one message. Prefix with the greeting! And any follow up details can go in a thread.
It isn't fully asynchronous if notifications are enabled. With notifications, you are more like a single cpu server that has to handle hardware interrupts for disk/network io. It stops you from working and forces context switching, only people aren't as good at context switching.
Pro-tip if you're one of those: If you look at the slack interface, there's not a lot of visual difference between two messages in a row, and a single message separated by two newlines (SHIFT-Enter if you don't know how to enter those).
It looks exactly the same to type "Hey.\n\nJust wanted to check up on the status of the de-fooification project. How's that going?" as it is to send those as two separate messages, it looks just as polite on the screen, and it's way less annoying.
Granted, I dont think I ever stopped at 'hey-'
Even worse is "Hey, I want to talk about something. I'll call you in 30 minutes."
You don’t have colleagues who type “hey” and then wait for your reply, do you?
"hey" [waits for a response; then a long pause and agonisingly slow typing after you've said hey back]
"Can I ask you a question?" [waits for a response] [agonisingly slow typing coupled with intermittent pauses].
Always makes me want to yell at people to just ask their damn question.
I agree it's really poor etiquette to make the view scroll for no reason and to make it hard for others to participate. It's fine in DMs or maybe with 3-4 likeminded people, but in anything meant for wider reading or participation it's rude (usually unintentionally) and counterproductive. Fortunately, since it's not intentionally rude, it's not a big deal to teach that good middle ground.
Look at it this way, they're gonna make their point anyway. The sooner you know the better ;)
"Yt?"
"Yes"
"Coworker is typing..." for 20 minutes
The above is a way more frustrating interaction because it feels that now the coworker feels I'm obligated to respond to a much longer query than I had anticipated. I'd expected a short query which I could either answer offhand or evaluate its priority to indicate if I had time to handle it. Instead I now need to let someone down that after 20 minutes of explaining their problem, I actually don't have the time or info to help them debug their CI build.
It's gotten to the point that I simply stopped answering these naked hellos/yt questions.
A: Hello @B!
... waiting ...
B: yeah, what's up?
A: how are you?
B: fine, what's up?
A: i have a question
B: ... okay ...
A: (now the real question comes, whuch then requires lots of clarification ...)
B: yes (or "no" and thst's the full answer needed)
A worse one yet is where they go "hello?", then an X minutes after you sigh and say 'yeah?' they call you.
It's not email, there is someone sitting on the other side who waits, so I give them something to read. When I call them, they also hear what I say when I say it and not after the whole message is complete.
But the actual effect never feels like the computer is dragging. Perhaps because multiple cores.
It’s better than a “fix 400% CPU usage” commit.
(stolen from https://xkcd.com/1172/)
This is the umpteenth time I’ve seen an appropriate, relevant XKCD reference downvoted for no apparent reason in the last few days. I miss the inevitable perfect recall for relevant XKCD in the old Slashdot days. It’s sad that there’s apparently such disdain for that sort of fun on here, even in comments on a fun submission.
"Obligatory XKCD" comments read like low-effort karma grabs to me and presumably others. "You, sir, owe me a new keyboard!" "Here, take my updoot!!!".
Sure, and it was probably always garbage. The point of the observation was that as garbage became sewage and filth, I thought whatever value there ever had been was naught. But I realized something was lost in that process. Clearly you disagree with that…
> "Obligatory XKCD" comments read like low-effort karma grabs to me and presumably others.
The link above and many of the others I’ve seen haven’t engaged that way. But even if so, so what? The actual linked content is both relevant and engaging for those curious. I still find myself amused going back to them when I don’t fully remember their contents, and I very seldom find them unthoughtful.
But who cares? It’s not like karma is scarce. Why shouldn’t people who enjoy it as side banter have that joy? The world is hard enough as it is without punishing completely harmless fun.
(yes, http. https won't work. sorry. i'll fix it someday.)
also, we would LOVE someone to fork this and/or take it over, we really don't have time to maintain it.
https://slate.com/technology/2014/02/typing-indicator-in-cha...
> the feature was well-received and soon copied by AOL and Yahoo, the other two big IM forces back then.
No big insights about typing indicators in the article, though, e.g no user research was done or anything.
Near the bottom of the article is an interesting bit about messengers showing the message, not just a typing indicator, in realtime. I guess people nowadays (I certainly would) think of it as something Google tried, but it sounds like this predates MSN. The author says they prefer that over typing indicators.
"talk" which he describes dates back to the early 80's, but there were predecessors on systems predating Unix as well long before that.
But I personally prefer the explanation that dang is omniscient ;)
The Juche calendar counts from the birth of Kim Il-sung.
Unix counts from the Epoch.
The Islamic calendar counts from when the prophet Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina.
The Ab urbe condita counts from the foundation of the City (i.e. Rome).
There are many, many more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_era
¹ Since Maimonides, before that it was from the destruction of the temple.
(Edit: Formatting).
> Take the Traders' method of timekeeping. The frame corrections were incredibly complex - and down at the very bottom of it was a little program that ran a counter. Second by second, the Qeng Ho counted from the instant that a human had first set foot on Old Earth's moon. But if you looked at it still more closely ... the starting instant was actually about fifteen million seconds later, the 0-second of one of Humankind's first computer operating systems.
I miss the AIM days when you’d hear the “door opening” sound when someone signed on. It was totally normal to immediately ping someone then because signing onto AIM was asking to be pinged. And that sound made your heart skip a beat because it might be the girl you like and she might even IM you first :o
I find active/non-active presence helpful so I know whether or not to expect a reply soon.
Plus, I never need to wonder if it's safe to send a message to a coworker for their timezone "George is in Germany, am I going to wake him up if I send me a message now?" I can rely on him setting notifications appropriately.
Privacy and concentration are selfish interests? Why not have a 9-5 webcam of yourself feeding into my surveillance dashboard? This way I can see my team hard at work as I would in an open office. They'll love that.
The prior in-person work setup is not the ideal nor the standard. I don't need or expect others to pay attention to what I'm saying right when I'm saying it unless there's real urgency. We're all IP-enabled meat functions now; there's no going back.
https://github.com/andrewconner/slack-hide-typing/blob/maste...
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