the concept of a spontaneous unscheduled phone call is so strange and alien to me. you’re telling me there are people out there who want to be interrupted at random points in their day, and a large fraction of the time they are able to just pick up and talk? rather than constantly getting voicemails, and then leaving voicemails back because by the time you get around to replying, the caller is busy? do these people spend most of their days doing neither deep work nor being in social situations that would be rude to suddenly step away from?
You are telling me there are people out there who when they want to make progress on something that is blocked by another person, or where whenever some kind of thinking is best aided by another person, just… wait for hours or days at a time until they respond? Juggling 15-20 different messaging threads without getting any focused work done, instead of simply calling the person, resolving the issue and moving on? Do these people spend most of their days just waiting on other people to get back to them, or being in pre-scheduled calls all day that are scheduled for 30 minutes despite being resolvable in a 5-minute phone call?
do these people spend most of their days doing neither deep work
My rough guess is that only 1–5% of jobs involve deep work. Something like 1⁄3 of jobs are manufacturing and 1⁄3 are service/retail, none of which involve deep work.
nor being in social situations that would be rude to suddenly step away from?
I have met many people who believe a phone call takes priority over all other forms of social interaction, for some reason.
the concept of a spontaneous unscheduled phone call is so strange and alien to me. you’re telling me there are people out there who want to be interrupted at random points in their day, and a large fraction of the time they are able to just pick up and talk? rather than constantly getting voicemails, and then leaving voicemails back because by the time you get around to replying, the caller is busy? do these people spend most of their days doing neither deep work nor being in social situations that would be rude to suddenly step away from?
I love spontaneous unscheduled phone calls!
You are telling me there are people out there who when they want to make progress on something that is blocked by another person, or where whenever some kind of thinking is best aided by another person, just… wait for hours or days at a time until they respond? Juggling 15-20 different messaging threads without getting any focused work done, instead of simply calling the person, resolving the issue and moving on? Do these people spend most of their days just waiting on other people to get back to them, or being in pre-scheduled calls all day that are scheduled for 30 minutes despite being resolvable in a 5-minute phone call?
No, we don’t wait hours or days, we text you asking, “Hey, when would be a good time to follow up?”
But like, they then might take hours to respond, or the scheduled call might happen hours or days later? That’s what I am referring to.
Also to be clear, this is all in jest. I have lived in both cultures. I have updated towards phone call world over time.
My rough guess is that only 1–5% of jobs involve deep work. Something like 1⁄3 of jobs are manufacturing and 1⁄3 are service/retail, none of which involve deep work.
I have met many people who believe a phone call takes priority over all other forms of social interaction, for some reason.
(My preferences are the same as yours FWIW.)