Getting used to it

Is underrated.

Don’t like it, but it’s useful enough to do it? Just get used to it.

More on this: You Can Try to Like Stuff by Dynomight

Never record a meeting

Always transcribe it by hand. People act differently when they know they are being recorded. For me, this is the main reason I am against recording. I want to hear people’s genuine and slightly unfiltered takes.

Producing an artifact is one way to make meetings more effective, though. Therefore, just transcribe the meeting by typing it all out on the meeting screen for everyone to see. That’s the sweet spot.

Pre-LLM list of arguments:

• People know exactly what you are writing, thus are more trusting
• People can opt-out of being transcribed
• It keeps you engaged in the meeting as you really have to listen
• You can slow/speed up the convo with an excuse that you need some typing, you can ask clarifying questions -- you are much in control of the meeting

Post-LLM list of arguments:

• Hand transcriptions are better than machine generated ones when the meeting has many people, many topics, a mix of (non-English) languages and subpar audio quality
• It keeps your typing skills sharp, a crucial skill for working with the LLMs
• Humans are more likely to read writing that’s not produced by LLMs, rational or not