position sheet. the reasoning behind the anti-recap stance, kept separate from features.
presence is
expensive.
productivity software assumed the hardest part of a meeting is remembering what happened. so we got summaries, recaps, action items, highlights and key takeaways.
sometimes those are useful. but if you sat through the meeting, you already know what happened. you do not need software to explain your own experience back to you.
a summarizer asks what happened. a proxy asks what you needed from what happened.
- 01attendance is a cost, not a value
an hour spent in a call is an hour spent. the information is the value, and it rarely needs the hour.
- 02more output is not more help
summaries, recaps, highlights and action items can each become another thing to process.
- 03the stated need comes first
if you already know what you need, the correct answer is that thing, not general coverage of everything said.
you do not always need to spend an hour of your life acquiring one piece of information. you do not always need to read a summary of something you already experienced. sometimes you just need someone to go.