Async is the most inefficient bullshit ever. Something that takes 30 seconds to say takes 5 mins to write and another 10 mins to parse and that’s if there are no further questions.
This matters because async can become more efficient than sync when it prevents you from having to repeat yourself, but you lose this efficiency if you don't invest in clear writing that is easy to parse (repeatedly) to begin with.
"What takes 30 seconds to say takes 5 hours to reverse engineer and another 10 hours to document."
There's power in recording words, especially if you consider the fact that you may not work at the same place forever and people need to come behind you with concrete context to build upon what you created. This is a difficult task without recorded history.
I think this point gets lost in these discussions in favor of the immediate meaning.
Writing ensures that
a) it was important enough to spend time writing out
b) the ask has been thought through and can be communicated in clear terms (and via written clarifying questions)
c) the conversation can scale beyond half duplex in the same space and timezone
d) there is a log of the ask, questions, responses, etc. for posterityIf I just stupidly write down what I would similarly babble (and must be that way, because parsing that takes double time of that?) - then at most twofold slower.. factor 10 only possible on mobile maybe. Now parse that!