When you make speed and “moving fast” the biggest priority on a project or in an organization, the first thing to breakdown is talking to each other. Talking takes time. Consensus is expensive and slow. In a pressurized environment there’s no time to schedule calls, get input from subject matter experts, or resolve key differences of opinion. ASAP makes a big assumption that all relevant parties are already in the room.
be diligent
For individuals It's challenging to work a process when it moves slower than feels appropriate. In the context of computer conversations, the tactic of s...
Because coordination is expensive
If you’ve ever worked at a larger organization, stop me if you’ve heard (or asked!) any of these questions: “Why do we move so slowly as an organization? We need to figure out how…
The Social Physics of Conversation: Why Communication Patterns Matter
Discover how communication patterns shape team performance, innovation, and collective intelligence. Learn why idea flow matters more than talent alone.
The 37signals Guide to Internal Communication
The how, where, why, and when we communicate. Long form asynchronous? Real-time chat? In-person? Video? Verbal? Written? Via email? In Basecamp? How do we keep everyone in the loop without everyone getting tangled in everyone else’s business? It’s all in here.
Small talk acts like social glue – here’s how to get better at it
Maybe think of small talk as a technology: a human invention for accomplishing social goals.
Human–AI Collaboration at Scale: Task Criticality, Agency, and Friction Across 250,000 Conversations
Stanford University researchers analyzed nearly 250,000 real-world human-AI conversations from Claude.ai to understand collaborative dynamics, finding that over half of interactions involve...
On Politics at Work
What happens when you can’t have a political conversation at work? Political conversation continues at work, between coworkers. If these are conversations that …
Researchers say we’re talking less than ever
It’s not just small talk, it’s all talk that’s dying.
Why ChatGPT Keeps Interrupting You — Dr. Tom Shapland, LiveKit
AI is teaching us to speak like bots, and it’s a problem - Fast Company
AI is creeping into our everyday conversations, making us less patient and teaching us to 'prompt' others instead of talking to them.
When should a decision be fast, or slow?
Decisions should usually be made quickly, to accelerate action and learning. But sometimes it really is smarter to take your time. Here's how to decide.
What the heck is asynchronous communication anyway?
Async is a game-changer even for co-located teams, but it's an absolute must for teams collaborating remotely.
If you thought the speed of writing code was your problem - you have bigger problems | Debugging Leadership
AI coding tools are optimising the wrong thing and nobody wants to hear it. Writing code was already fast. The bottleneck is everything else: unclear requirements, review queues, terrified deploy cultures, and an org chart that needs six meetings to decide what colour the button should be.
The Power of Asynchronous Communication
Asynchronous communication allows us to maintain the essential bonds of friendship and dialog with the people that matter to us.
Excellent @tgspodcast.bsky.social episode, finding myself pausing every minute to take notes. "What sorts of systems are going to make it through the bottlenecks of the 21st c?“ TLDR collective robustness beats individual optimization Once (if?) funders get this, atproto will see investments
The Optimization Trap: Why Too Much Efficiency Makes Us Fragile with Olivier Hamant
open.spotify.com