[placatedmayhem]

If we stop treating asynchronous communications mechanisms (chat, email, etc.) as synchronous (voice/video calls, face-to-face), the urgency issue goes away for everyone.

Async comms should regularly (and, perhaps, by default) be muted to enhance focus. Let them collect and allow the person to manage their own time. "No hello" allows them to have the question ready for them to address when they process their incoming queues.

Synchronous comms should be used to get immediate attention on an urgent issue that needs to be addressed immediately, or be used for tight, rapid iteration in a discussion (e.g. rapid design discussions). Because it necessarily takes attention away from another task, the activation energy should be higher.