[15457345234]

I absolutely love calls, you don't have to type and you have the other person's (relatively) undivided attention. Plus cajoling, browbeating and instigating techniques work better and if called out you can put things down to 'tonal misunderstanding.' Also a lot of people these days can't truly understand written content because they don't grasp nuance and only interpret things literally. When you actually talk to them they tend to be a little less robotic and start inferring more so you don't have to spell things out so elaborately.

[tomjakubowski]

> a lot of people these days can't truly understand written content

It's a two way street. A lot of people are terrible at writing to communicate, especially in a time-sensitive context like Slack, and we remote workers are having to do a lot more written communication than when we were in the office.

US national reading comprehension test scores have been flat, more or less, since 1992. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2022/

[cassianoleal]

> a lot of people these days can't truly understand written content because they don't grasp nuance and only interpret things literally.

There seems to be a disconnect between parts of this sentence. "Can't understend written content" because they "interpret things literally."

Why wouldn't they? If you have something to say, say it - or, in this case, write it.

Why leave things open to interpretation?

Furthermore, why not just say things literally in a video call or in-person meeting as well? Surely the only possibility is for less confusion this way.

[15457345234]

Because unless you take half an hour to write 500 words you're always leaving things open to interpretation. A huge part of human communication is interpretation and inference.

When you have a verbal communication people bring up things they don't understand in realtime and you correct as you go so that, by the end of the conversation, a mutual understanding has been reached.

In writing - especially if you're sending emails - people are often reluctant to come back for more info as they think it'll make them look dumb, plus there's the 'inertia' factor plus the factor of not knowing whether you'll get a timely reply.

[kccqzy]

You know you can just have an in-person meeting. You also don't have to type and you also have the other person's undivided attention (perhaps even more so).

[15457345234]

I don't like to move, I like to sit at my desk and summon