Apple’s new iBag, remote communication upgrades, and tricking your brain into getting sh*t done. It’s Friday-time.

MORE AND LESS

It is (or at least should be) well-known that applying in-office communication processes and styles to remote work won’t, you know, work.

GitHub’s Ben Balter, using the gzip compression protocol as a metaphor and simultaneously proving he’s a lovable nerd, digs in with some easily digestible async guidelines. The main takeaway: remote colleagues need to communicate more comprehensively but less often than their in-office counterparts.

“Remote work requires communicating more, less frequently, because asynchronous communication involves less frequent, but richer communication, meaning there is less time talking about the work and more time doing it, allowing the system to optimize for throughput and flow.”

Sounds just about right to us :)

— Ben Balter’s Blog, 4 minutes

VR SIDE FX

Imagine if Apple had to include a barf bag amongst the cords and quick-start pamphlets in their elegantly sustainable headset packaging.

“Some employers are excited about swapping out computer monitors for virtual reality headsets, but the side effects of using VR are not completely understood,” writes USC researcher Alexis Souchet.

Souchet cited research from Kay Stanney and her colleagues that suggests that 80% of VR users face mild to severe short-term side effects — from the usual tech-induced headaches to nausea and attention lapses. And sure, breaking down 90 factors affecting these symptoms is impressive, but we’re still in the dark about many of their direct correlations.

Hopefully, billions of dollars of product development will sort this out. Otherwise, it’s “one more thing...”

— The Conversation, 6 minutes

WORK SMELLS

One of the biggest challenges in today’s remote work era? Convincing your brain it’s time to knuckle down and get productive.

“How do you signal to your brain that now, indeed, is the right moment to sit down and get something done? And can you be convincing enough to prevail over your brain - who is a master in creating excuses? The answer is: environmental cues,” writes Valentina Thörner, the “Empress of Remote.” (By the way, Thörner is pronounced Turner, as in Tina.)

According to the Empress, the best way to focus is to establish visceral cues for work time. For example, sitting in a particular chair, absorbing the aroma of coffee or tea, or touching the letters of a dedicated work keyboard. You're telling your brain: this is what work looks like, this is what work smells like, and this is what work feels like--this is when work happens.

— LinkedIn, 6 minutes

ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERNETS

YESTERYEAR TECH OF THE WEEK

There are three kinds of people in this world: 1.) people that love dot matrix printers, 2.) people that hate dot matrix printers, and 3.) people under 30. For those of you in group 1, here’s a beauty from Okidata:

Until next week 🫡,

— 💬 The EiT Crew at Status Hero

P.S. Just last week, the team at Status Hero pushed out a beautiful update to the app dashboards … read all about it.