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Being prepared for a meeting means the meeting should never take place at all.

If you know what you're going to say, put it in a damned email. If I have a question, I'll reply. Then you can craft a thoughtful and correct answer as time allows while consulting any necessary reference material, instead of talking out of your ass.

You also look cool by violating the laws of physics. People don't have to actually attend a "meeting" to be there, they just have to gasp read their email! Amazing!




The goal of an efficient meeting is the rapid discussion of ideas to reach a consensus.

E-mail is dreadful for anything that tends to go off-course (needs to be chaired) or requires rapid discussion with evolving arguments.


I can only imagine the same people who are saying meetings are terrible are also the ones saying "why doesn't anyone respond to my emails quickly???"


Hardly. I'm the one constantly wondering why people didn't read the email I sent them before interrupting me with redundant questions that were thoroughly answered in the email.


I have never been in a meeting where consensus was reached. I've been in plenty of meetings where management edicts were handed down after an hour of wasted time with "rapid discussion" based on faulty assumptions that could have been fixed in ten minutes if someone had had an opportunity to consult relevant material at their desk in peace.

Either you're confusing "peers with a whiteboard" with "meetings", or you're living on a completely different planet from me.


> Either you're confusing "peers with a whiteboard" with "meetings", or you're living on a completely different planet from me.

I guess I have different meetings to you.


Exactly. I used to hate meetings too. But, when you are working on a project that requires thoughtful discussion of something specific, email can be horrendous.




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