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Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by superchroma on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:13AM (#32579720)
Well, the cost is presently invisible. Even if they were good, the meetings would mostly still happen regardless, and there's no punishment to leading a bad meeting, and if you're doing most of the talking, you won't have time to be bored anyway. Often it seems presenters/organizers are oblivious in this way to the fact that their meetings suck. I guess it's the same reason presenters don't stop to ponder why their demonstrations and powerpoint slideshows suck and aren't anything like apple keynotes, and go straight on to just cram a bunch of tiny text on there and read straight off the slide like an idiot, or show excel spreadsheets, or console outputs in lieu of really presenting. I think many people don't spend a lot of time trying to do metacognition and trying empathetic thought to see how things may be received, or thinking about what people actually want to see.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by NoMAD76 on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:39AM (#32580056)
Meetings are bad, all should just admit that. They are the lamest things that tries to substitute all formal/non-formal on-site meetings (please read it coffee/tea/snacks breaks).

Online meetings just sucks.

Why?

They waste time. If they happen in the first part of the day, they just dry-out those before-1pm-doers (I include myself here). If they happen in the 2nd part of the day, half will be just tired or waiting for it to be finished.

Countless times no solutions are made during a single meeting, you require 2-3-4 meetings, it can be a full week before something is nailed.

Now, I might be a bit too old but for many-many-many years before "zoom is the new king" thingies, most of us managed to do amazing thing by simply using async comms (emails, docs, chats).

I wish we can turn back to those days simply because it worked well, the additional stress/pressure current meetings are throwing to many of us will result in higher burn-outs rates.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by nh23423fefe on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:11AM (#32579699)
I don't think meetings suck. Meetings are high bandwidth communication that can obliterate confusion and create team consensus. Long running meetings can create positive feedback loops.

Meetings aren't agents. A meeting is bad when the people in the meeting are bad.

Please don't disagree by giving anecdata about your bad meetings.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by icedchai on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:15AM (#32579738)
If you want to take action, stop showing up to meetings. Or turn off your camera and phone it in, literally and figuratively.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by jqpabc123 on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @09:59AM (#32579547)
- like hiring a consultant, or changing anything?

But which consultant to hire?

I know --- let's have a meeting to discuss it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by seehausandi on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:00AM (#32579552)
:-D
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by mamonster on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:08AM (#32579655)
Because it would be a discussion with management, and management most of the times is the one making those meetings horrible. At the same time, most managers don't do anything apart from schedule meetings.

A bit like asking the pyromaniac to stop causing fires.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Everybody knows meetings suck, why is everybody i... by tobitobbsaaan on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @10:49AM (#32580184)
There is a plethora amount of tools, none of them helps!
[ Parent | on HN ]