Prefer Multicast, Async communication
Originally published on LinkedIn.
ver the years, I’ve realized that direct messages rarely an effective way to ask for help or discuss things.
When I DM someone with a question, a few things tend to happen:
The pressure shifts entirely to one person.
I have no idea whether they’re busy or deep in focus.
The conversation becomes invisible to everyone else who might benefit from it.
That’s why I’ve started to try to posting questions in a public channel instead.
A lot of this comes from watching how more senior folks around me communicate, they default to shared spaces, not private ones. Public channels let people respond at their own pace, without feeling interrupted.
They give visibility to the folks who help, which is always nice. And most importantly, they leave a trail. Something others (including future me) can learn from when the same problem comes up again.
For those of us who enjoy doing our own research before asking anything, having past discussions in the open is incredibly useful for discoverability.
So lately, I’ve been moving away from DMs for technical questions or discussions in general. And that’s it. Thanks for reading if you made it this far 🙌