zoning out during standup
Every morning, as the first light bled into the room, the software engineer’s alarm would chirp, marking another day’s beginning. The routine was as predictable as the sunrise. Wake, stretch, sip a coffee, and sit before the computer.
The screen springs to life, revealing a grid of familiar faces. Standup meeting — the daily ritual. Each square held an expression; some were tired, some eager, but all were familiar. Pixels and bandwidth conveying nuances, the raise of an eyebrow, the half-hidden yawn.
Every team member’s consciousness has their turn taking a joy ride away from the “sync-up” to somewhere far more exciting or relevant to their life. Was Jennifer’s party this weekend? Maybe I should get them a gift.
It takes personal confidence and patience from everyone on the team to address the shortcomings of our attention. But I wonder, if every moment of these meetings is already digitized and transmitted, what if AI was processing this information? Calculators help us do math; AI could help us do conversations. What if, in your standup meetings, the POC code was automatically written as a feature for a task, a proposal appeared before you based on user stories, and idle teammates could react with emojis to what is being talked about? I don’t know about you, but standups and my attention would feel a lot less like oil and water if something was interesting happening in them.
