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0 pointsgajus3y ago0 comments

Personally, I switched to voice messages (via WhatsApp or Slack). It doesn't work for everything, but... if I know this will take me more than a minute to type, it is going to be a voice message. If it requires visual aid – Loom.

The only problem with audio/Loom messages is that it is not easily indexable, but that's a tooling problem that can be easily solved.

I rarely use email (I may ask someone to compose an email for me). In this setup, I do see value if I had a Slack bot that I could say to "ask lawyers for an update on X". But even then, people would immediately know that the email came not from "me"...

Personally, I'd like to see more tooling around

* using AI to auto-polish video/audio communication, e.g. remove long pauses, skip filler words, etc.

* summarizing video/audio/text communication into bullet points of intel and actions

0 comments

marssaxman3y ago

> if I know this will take me more than a minute to type, it is going to be a voice message.

I'm glad you and I do not try to correspond!

polygamous_bat3y ago

Same here. Audio messages are easy to create for the sender but a nightmare to parse for the receiver. Whenever I receive an audio message I automatically tend to assume that the sender thinks of their time as more valuable than the receiver, which is acceptable in some cases (from busy PhD advisor to advisee) but I find unacceptable in other cases, for example in peer-to-peer communication.

gajusOP3y ago

That view that you are describing is completely culture dependent though.

The opposite is true in Asia.

1 more reply

8n4vidtmkvmk3y ago

+1 but the sad part is that this is trivial to fix with Whisper yet I'm not seeing the integrations in popular messaging apps. just put the text blurb in there automatically already!

gajusOP3y ago

Whisper is still cost prohibitive at scale.

1 more reply

stavros3y ago

> if I know this will take me more than a minute to type, it is going to be a voice message

This just shifts the burden from you to the recipient. I don't want to listen to a 1-minute voice message where you pause and try to collect your thoughts, rather than spend two seconds reading two sentences.

gajusOP3y ago

I think the future of work communication is going to be something similar to what these guys are doing https://www.volleyapp.com/ I don't Volley is there yet (or even close), but the concept is on the right path: async video/audio/3D stitched into a coherent narrative thanks to AI.

Input and high quality audio is the biggest barrier at the moment.

When I say input, I mean that we need something similar to sousveillance tech that can contribute to conversation without me actively switching context. Just like we would in a real-world conversation.

When I say audio, I mean that no one wants to listen poorly articulated voice messages that are hard to follow. We need tech that can make each of us sound smart.

It will happen. Few interesting startups in this space.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsgajus3y ago0 comments

The only problem with audio/Loom messages is that it is not easily indexable, but that's a tooling problem that can be easily solved.

Personally, I'd like to see more tooling around

* using AI to auto-polish video/audio communication, e.g. remove long pauses, skip filler words, etc.

* summarizing video/audio/text communication into bullet points of intel and actions

0 comments

marssaxman3y ago

> if I know this will take me more than a minute to type, it is going to be a voice message.

I'm glad you and I do not try to correspond!

polygamous_bat3y ago

gajusOP3y ago

That view that you are describing is completely culture dependent though.

The opposite is true in Asia.

1 more reply

8n4vidtmkvmk3y ago

+1 but the sad part is that this is trivial to fix with Whisper yet I'm not seeing the integrations in popular messaging apps. just put the text blurb in there automatically already!

gajusOP3y ago

Whisper is still cost prohibitive at scale.

1 more reply

stavros3y ago

> if I know this will take me more than a minute to type, it is going to be a voice message

gajusOP3y ago

Input and high quality audio is the biggest barrier at the moment.

When I say audio, I mean that no one wants to listen poorly articulated voice messages that are hard to follow. We need tech that can make each of us sound smart.

It will happen. Few interesting startups in this space.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse