

Don't Forget to Talk - williamldennis
http://blog.willdennis.com/2013/09/16/dont-forget-to-talk/

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caseyohara
Where I work, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon everyone in the office
closes their computer for 30 minutes of coordinated "no computer time". People
are free to go for a walk, grab coffee or chat with someone about what they
are working on.

Most often, however, it ends up being small groups of people around a few
chalkboards talking through new ideas. Some of our best ideas have spawned
from these 30-minute sessions, and quite often the ideas start flowing and an
hour later we realize "no computer time" has long since been over.

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mcdougle
I like this idea a lot. Reminds me of some of the team projects I did in
school. It also seems a lot more productive than all of those pointless
corporate meetings...

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dillonforrest
I agree with the thesis of Will's post. I'd just like to point out that 1)
meetings are still Evil (capital E) and 2) "free-flowing, organic discourse,"
as Will puts it, is perfect for anti-meeting culture. It's not nearly as
interruptive as a meeting.

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tehwalrus
brains process language differently when you're actually saying things, rather
than just thinking to yourself. You actually think differently out loud -
email debates are no substitute for lunchtime chatting, and team coffee
breaks.

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jtbigwoo
Eating lunch together can foster connections and spark conversations like
this.

Also, it's funny the number of times just speaking a problem out loud changes
your perspective on things. I've worked on short-deadline projects where we
asked team members to set a one-hour time limit on problems. If you're stuck
on something for more than an hour, explain the problem to your neighbor and
ask for help. There were several times when I turned toward my neighbor and
realized the solution before I said a word. I suspect that the act of
organizing the problem in order to explain it made it easier to solve.

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KeepTalking
I agree completely. Lunch conversations are a wonderful time to break into
informal conversations that result in ideas/fixes etc. I have worked at 2
places where (informally) the team chose to have lunch together and I have
seen that the discussion invariable boils down to work ideas with better
results than 'meetings'. I suspect a large reason as to why this works is
eventually everyone lets their guard down and results in better/relaxed
thinking.

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Shank
As always, the goal is to balance conversation with actual coding time. I hate
being interrupted when I'm in the actual process of writing code - but in
between sprints to a goal I'm happy to sit down and chat for 5 minutes about a
feature or modification.

The problems begin to arise when that balance is broken - too much "own world"
programming can lead to quirks that only a single person understands; while
too much discussion can lead to never getting actual work done.

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WhitneyLand
Is this supposed to be anti-work from home? If not, what's the optimal
balance?

