On my usual workdays, I am generally found jumping on one call having just left the other.

I work as a product manager and we have around 20 devs and 3 designers working with us. So calls tend to fill up any space available in my schedule.

If I say, "I hate calls", that would be an understatement.

I make an effort to make sure everything is written. Sahil Lavigna, the founder of Gumroad, shared an analogy that I loved and want to live by - Using writing as a cache. [^1]

But still, when it comes to resolving edge cases, 5 - 10 min calls work well. Sometimes, a lot of these calls even last less than a complete minute. Ahh. Frustrating. But I have no authority to mandate to stop requesting calls with me. So I begrudgingly accept this fact - that my workday will be bombarded with these super short calls.

Today, a developer (a new addition to the team) asked me doubt on slack, instead of requesting a call. He was precise with his question and even though it might have collectively taken us longer to frame and answer the question, I considered this a net positive interaction.

There was no context switching, I could easily drop back to the work I was doing after answering his query. I appreciated that, and I let him know.

That was fun. I don’t know if it is just me but -

I find it difficult sometimes to appreciate people in a workplace for a personal priority.

I hope he felt good after receiving my appreciation. I certainly did. I hope from next time onwards, I feel less awkward in doing so.

[^1]: This analogy makes a ton of sense if you are a tech person and understand the basic use of cache. I won’t be able to explain the entire analogy here so click on this link and watch for 3 mins - video