Do not say hello only

Introduction

This post is based in dedicated pages about the subject, such as:

• https://no-hello.com/

Very likely, someone sends you here using a link in some sort of chat, like Slack, IRC, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and maybe Telegram after you entered the chat and only sent a “hello”, or a “good afternoon” or any greeting waiting for a response and is curious why this someone sent a link to here.

Did I do anything wrong?

Well, yes and no:

• It’s polite to start a conversation with an introduction.
• When you arrive only saying “hello” or greeting and waits an answer, you either force the other to ignore your greeting or answer trying to understand the reason of the contact.

Let’s imagine Alice and Fred. Alice is working in something difficult, and it’s highly concentrated in the task while Fred wants to ask a question to Alice.

[fred] Good morning Alice, I have a question!
[alice] Good morning, what is your question?
[fred] * finally unrolls *

In this example, Alice got the message from Fred, stopped what she was doing and asked how she could help. Only when she asked back Fred started typing (at least in WhatsApp, they often send audios, preferentially when I do not have a headphone) and Alice tries to resume what she was doing while Fred types and asks the actual question, which makes Alice lose the focus in her task and very likely will take some time until she goes back to the flow again.

Now with another example:

[fred] Good morning Alice, * unrolls *?
[alice] * answers *

Details to be noted:

• Fred did finish typing when Alice sees the message.
• Alice can instantly see the question and answer it directly, or with some waiting: She can delay the response until she achieves a checkpoint in her task where she doesn’t need to maintain the task context in her head.

Another level, isn’t it?

How I deal with this stuff

• Priority is always text, if the person didn’t yet ask I send a “send it” when I am ready.
• If you want me to make some effort to answer fast, do not send audios.
• Phone in silent 24/7 with floating notifications off. I look when I take it, and I kinda take it a lot.
• If you want the fish it’s because you can pay.
• I always try to answer with a link. The site generally explains better than I could explain at the moment. I created this blog to reference my own posts out there hehehe.
• Silence is more efficient than rudeness.
• Want to exchange some ideas? Nice, I won’t bite. I am often chill when I am not in much hurry, just cut the bs.