Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Mistletoe 602 days ago
Guys do you all realize this is why our modern work from home zoom era of meetings all day is silly and why nothing is getting done anymore? We get all these same benefits from working in an office together. This thread is a Gell-Mann Amnesia generator. Everyone says online conferences are stupid and then doesn’t see how absurd it is to say working the other 51 weeks of the year that way makes sense.
6 comments

I didn't say they were "stupid", I said I had trouble presenting at one.

That said, it's not apples to apples. I spend like 60% of my day coding, which of course I can do from pretty much anywhere, and it doesn't really matter if my jokes land. When I do video calls, it's generally in relatively small meetings, and it actually is relatively easy to gauge reactions that way.

It feels like you're extrapolating a bit much here.

For me that is very different. Regarding conferences I wrote above, while at the same time I am working remotely for 15 years.

In remote work with zoom meetings for me (may be different in other jobs)

* Most meetings are in small groups/teams and more discussion, where the feedback problem works better than a conference talk for 100 people * I know most of the audience, thus know what this expected to present, where the audience got experience and which humor does (not) work * In many meetings I can keep it running on the side while doing some other work and only give attention to the parts relevant for me * and am not involved in all that office noise and all the related distractions, but focus on my actual work

My boss of course has to trust me I do my stuff instead of standing behind me.

For larger milestones etc and socializing having in person meetings once in a while is important. But day to day remote massively reduces distractions and removes a lot of irrelevant stuff.

For some, a lot of their work is not doing "conference-style" activities (networking, meeting people, giving presentations, promoting to the public).

For others, perhaps it is, and your point would hold more water for them.

But surely you can see that yours is not a one-size-fits-all answer.

Man i wish work was just a big hang-out-and-chill conference! Talking and eating all day and watching endless presentations. But unfortunately some of us need to get actual work done.
If your job is to present on stage to a crowd 5 days a week, 9-5, sure. If not, don’t draw bad comparisons.
Conferences are fundamentally different from work though?