"I’m Quitting Phone Calls," TechCrunch Writer Says

Not too many people who work will have the precise set of work issues and tasks that lead TechCrunch writer James Altucher to detest work-related phone calls. His job requires intense scanning of content related to technology, and most phone calls are interruptions. He also points out a problem many others see, namely that text-based communications are easier to handle. He also is a non-native-English speaker who has to deal with lots of English content, so that is a factor as well.

"Barring some absolutely necessary phone calls, which will boil down to only a couple per month, if that all voice-based communication for professional purposes is out of the question, including Skype, Viber, mobile and landline calls," he says. "You can call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure it will be awesome, although, to be fair, it’s a fairly easy decision for me to make."

Some of us who do similar work would agree at least partially with the sentiment. We might argue that the richness of Web-based content and text-based communications now allows less reliance on voice communications. Some of us wouldn't go quite so far, but for a different reason.

Rarely does a text "press release" covering any significantly-complex product actually succeed in explaining what something "new" is, well enough so a writer can, with confidence, explain "what it is" or "why it is important." In part, that's by design. The traditional way press releases are developed is that they are just teasers to provoke an interview.

The problem with that traditional approach is that many of us do not have the time to conduct many such interviews anymore. We simply have to cover so much material that the "release" has to do all the work. That's tougher. So, no, some of us will not be dispensing with voice calls, because we really cannot.

But that probably isn't the main point. The big switch is how little I actually use "voice" anymore, and how little of it really is required to get my work done. Of course, like Altucher most of my work involves "searching" for new developments to write about. That can be done almost exclusively with text and Web tools, these days.

I don't find this to be true for sales professionals, though. They still lean on voice.

I’m Quitting Phone Calls | TechCrunch