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on human time-scale email is like UDP
Apr. 28th, 2021 01:28 pmCommunicating with your cow orkers in person (...or on the phone, but nobody does that anymore) is like a TCP connection. It's a bit more overhead to set up, but once you're in the same space with someone, there's an ongoing connection. I mean, the other party could totally ignore you, sure, but there's a protocol (!!!??!?) which carries the expectation that they won't. There's acks ('uh-huh') and naks ('what was that again? I didn't get that') so that communication is confirmed before going forward. Formally disconnecting (saying "bye") is a thing, and before that there may be some checking in that everyone's OK.
Communicating with your cow orkers via email or Slack is like UDP. You squirt out a message into the void. Did it go through? Who knows? Is the other party going to read it? Who knows? What are they going to do? ??? Should you re-send the message or would that be annoyingly excessive? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You sent a message hoping that the right thing happens, or that there's some response, but it's merely hope.
So much rage this morning because of foul-ups in communication with cow orkers. My plans got totally screwed up because of 1) me trying to communicate something the "right way" to the office, which was via a Google form which was apparently malfunctioning and 2) mysterious complete ignoring of all my follow-up emails. Still mad about that. Then, confusion in logistics for many-person Zoom scheduling, because of someone's carelessly composed email. In both cases, oh, how much being able to look at someone with puzzlement on my face could've accomplished.
Communicating with your cow orkers via email or Slack is like UDP. You squirt out a message into the void. Did it go through? Who knows? Is the other party going to read it? Who knows? What are they going to do? ??? Should you re-send the message or would that be annoyingly excessive? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You sent a message hoping that the right thing happens, or that there's some response, but it's merely hope.
So much rage this morning because of foul-ups in communication with cow orkers. My plans got totally screwed up because of 1) me trying to communicate something the "right way" to the office, which was via a Google form which was apparently malfunctioning and 2) mysterious complete ignoring of all my follow-up emails. Still mad about that. Then, confusion in logistics for many-person Zoom scheduling, because of someone's carelessly composed email. In both cases, oh, how much being able to look at someone with puzzlement on my face could've accomplished.
