Very interesting topic. My wife and I enjoy the Spurs NBA games on TV at a deeper level because we go to the arena a few times a year. This is memory mirroring -- and yeah, the premiere method of communicating is face to face. Lucky people, unconcerned with COVID or travel costs, enjoy the face time. I like to frame the beginning and endings of calls “personal connection” instead of “small talk.” A Zoom call with eight people is about four people too many, because there’s no room, in time, for personal talk.
When you factor in the camera fatigue, from people with hours of Zoom each day, you see that sharp drop off of productivity. People turn their cameras off. So then it’s become 2002, on a conference call where you might be on a beach listening in. I know an aeronautics exec who once did just that. Fortune 500 firm, and his work is well regarded.
Those of us who managed careers without video had to connect with voice only, eh? Did your book editors do a good job without face to face? Were there editors you never met in person, but had to collaborate with? I’d Iike to hear your anecdotal results about that. Keep us thinking...
Thanks for your comment Ron. Interesting as always. I agree that Zoom without video is like a phone call except you can add the display option for sharing information easier. I think sharing the same file at the same time adds to the mental connection (and maybe the neural links?) but it is still lean. Requiring the camera to be on forces all to at least be conscious during the Zoom call.
I am guilty of having dozed off on Zoom calls when I was off camera and not a presenter. When teaching, I have no idea if my students are actually there when the camera is off, and no question, those who have their cameras on understand the concepts better based on the work they turn in. That may be confirmation bias talking but that is how it seems to me.
As for my books, in the early days it wasn't feasible to meet in person (we were hundreds of miles apart) and all we had was phone, rudimentary email like AOL and FedEx, so most was done sending hard copies and floppies using FedEx and later with email files using Word comments, etc. This worked well as long as it the edits were straight forward. When they became more complicated, such as matters of style, approach, context, we used the phone.
I do, however, recall that for my "CIG to Personal Finance" book I made a special trip to Carmel, IN from Chicago to do a major edit on the book. I had written 100+ pages more than we needed (sigh) and we had to figure out what to cut. The editors wanted to do this without me which I was not going to let happen, so I drove there and we spent a couple of days revising the content flow. I can't imagine how that would have worked using email. The primary editor was a great guy and it was a fun process in person, and I believe it could have easily become contentious if done remotely. I am still proud of the final product and felt like it was my book and not the editors'.
As an aside, on the drive down I listened to a terrifying Y2K prediction story on the radio and thought that someone should write a book about Y2K without the sensationalism, and instead looked at Y2K from a technology/fact base. I mentioned that to my publisher and he said he agreed. That is where my "SAMS Learn Y2K Survival" book came from, and it would not have happened if I had not made the trip. Go figure! In person definitely closed that book deal. Thanks again for the comment.
Very interesting topic. My wife and I enjoy the Spurs NBA games on TV at a deeper level because we go to the arena a few times a year. This is memory mirroring -- and yeah, the premiere method of communicating is face to face. Lucky people, unconcerned with COVID or travel costs, enjoy the face time. I like to frame the beginning and endings of calls “personal connection” instead of “small talk.” A Zoom call with eight people is about four people too many, because there’s no room, in time, for personal talk.
When you factor in the camera fatigue, from people with hours of Zoom each day, you see that sharp drop off of productivity. People turn their cameras off. So then it’s become 2002, on a conference call where you might be on a beach listening in. I know an aeronautics exec who once did just that. Fortune 500 firm, and his work is well regarded.
Those of us who managed careers without video had to connect with voice only, eh? Did your book editors do a good job without face to face? Were there editors you never met in person, but had to collaborate with? I’d Iike to hear your anecdotal results about that. Keep us thinking...
Thanks for your comment Ron. Interesting as always. I agree that Zoom without video is like a phone call except you can add the display option for sharing information easier. I think sharing the same file at the same time adds to the mental connection (and maybe the neural links?) but it is still lean. Requiring the camera to be on forces all to at least be conscious during the Zoom call.
I am guilty of having dozed off on Zoom calls when I was off camera and not a presenter. When teaching, I have no idea if my students are actually there when the camera is off, and no question, those who have their cameras on understand the concepts better based on the work they turn in. That may be confirmation bias talking but that is how it seems to me.
As for my books, in the early days it wasn't feasible to meet in person (we were hundreds of miles apart) and all we had was phone, rudimentary email like AOL and FedEx, so most was done sending hard copies and floppies using FedEx and later with email files using Word comments, etc. This worked well as long as it the edits were straight forward. When they became more complicated, such as matters of style, approach, context, we used the phone.
I do, however, recall that for my "CIG to Personal Finance" book I made a special trip to Carmel, IN from Chicago to do a major edit on the book. I had written 100+ pages more than we needed (sigh) and we had to figure out what to cut. The editors wanted to do this without me which I was not going to let happen, so I drove there and we spent a couple of days revising the content flow. I can't imagine how that would have worked using email. The primary editor was a great guy and it was a fun process in person, and I believe it could have easily become contentious if done remotely. I am still proud of the final product and felt like it was my book and not the editors'.
As an aside, on the drive down I listened to a terrifying Y2K prediction story on the radio and thought that someone should write a book about Y2K without the sensationalism, and instead looked at Y2K from a technology/fact base. I mentioned that to my publisher and he said he agreed. That is where my "SAMS Learn Y2K Survival" book came from, and it would not have happened if I had not made the trip. Go figure! In person definitely closed that book deal. Thanks again for the comment.