The Most Valuable Asset is Time - Please Don't Waste It Sending Low-Value Asynchronous Video Messages - Write

As with most people, my most valuable and finite asset is time. And many people are amazed at how much I get done so quickly [1][2][3]

Is anyone else noticing this increasing barrage of asynchronous low-value video messages in your chat messaging (especially in Linkedin)?

I am not even talking about the growing number of badly AI-created/modified ones (as someone working with what folks now call "AI" since the 1990s, I'm sometimes amused how poorly implemented they are), I am talking about human beings just talking at the camera usually generically, often as a sales ploy.

Or I am just "lucky" to be getting such an increasing number of these in recent years (especially on Linked)?

These were "cute" at first, 15-20 years ago. However, when you get several, or even dozens per day, they get old very quickly.

I no longer bother to open and watch them anymore, unless they include text in the chat message, explaining what they contain and the real value they provide. They are generally just another form of spam trying to bypass Linkedin's spam filters.

I have a lot of brands in a lot of fires, some more passively, others more hands-on actively. I have created a lot of tools to optimize my ability to juggle so much.

Some media is more efficient at communication of certain things, compared to others. Sometimes people use the tools incorrectly. Many of these videos are examples of using a wrench as a hammer, for example.

I do all I can to optimize the efficiency of my time, so that I can work toward my goal of "Ethical innovation improving the human experience. I strive in the hope that, during my limited time existing, I will have helped contribute to raising up the overall human condition", with the most impact in the time I have.

This means I have to be increasingly disciplined with my time, and watch out for areas that are "time sucks" that are not heading in the direction of the aforementioned overall goals.

While interacting with human beings is a critically important part of these goals, I find that here, too, I need to be discerning where and when I do so.

True, you never know what will come from any particular meeting with any given individual, everyone is full of surprises. However, I need to go with estimated probabilities, as best I can.

An area of increasing "waste" has been the growing trend to send me asynchronous videos, rather than text (sms/email/mail/pdf/docs/etc), link to videos (that I can ignore), etc.

Under some (many) circumstances this multimedia format, as high-information videos, can have value, and can be time-efficient and overall beneficial. Handling complex topics illustrated through animation with voice-over, etc., can be very informative and useful in a short time.

Also REAL-TIME in-person, or real-time audio/video conferencing, has a much higher probability of high value during that time, (though 60-80% of formal meeting time is arguably "wasted" time unless very well planned and run), especially for the much-needed human network connection.

However, I am increasingly getting inundated (especially on Linkedin) with people sending me asynchronous videos of themselves talking, introducting, sales-pitching (no graphics/animation/images), etc. Over time it has become clear these are generally worse than a waste of my time, they are a big negative time suck.

These are usually basically just low information videos as fronts or preludes for sales/marketing not real human connections. They don't really build relationships in any meaningful way, they don't transfer much useful information (usually), and THEY ARE A VERY SLOW FORM OF COMMUNICATION THAT SUCKS UP TIME UNNECESSARILY.

Real-time video conferencing, can be a quick information exchange, but this asynchronous low-information videos approach is far too slow.

I understand being busy, I often work 20+ hours per day, some weeks 7 days a week. So it might be tempting to just fire of these videos. Please don't! I truly understand about being super busy. It often takes longer to think, plan, write, edit, and send something written than to just verbalize it. That alone shows the significant value of the writing process. I understand you not a fast typist. Fortunately there are many great free open source self-hosted Artificial Intelligence enhanced Automatic Speech Recognition Natural Language Processing (AI ASR NLP) tools available (I've helped with their development over the decades, including some that outperformed Google by 150%). If you aren't a strong typist, their accuracy and speed is probably significantly greater than yours, so feel free to use them - but always sanity check before you hit send. :)

These videos come across as either:

• Lazy - too much effort for them (or beyond their abilities) to put together either a quality video or too much effort to write.

• Illiterate - (not counting non-native language speakers, which is more understandable) in many cases I have found that a large percentage of the people taking this approach, especially in the US, turn out to be very writing illiterate, and they are trying to cover this up with the video approach, but the moment they try to communicate through writing, it becomes abundantly clear.

• Disrespectful - because you're not willing to take the time to put together a well thought-out and presented message, you put the burden of consuming my time while I wait for you to get to the point of your message (many times back and forth inefficiently compounding the problem), showing little-to-no-respect to me or my time.

Not counting well put together videos, when you send a video with you just talking at the camera (often generically, not even specifically for me), you send all three of the above negative messages at once!

In the time I have to wait for you to make your point in your video (if you ever do), or your subsequent spam of mini-videos, whether 6 seconds, 90 seconds, or 5+ minutes, you may not be aware just how insultingly wasteful, and disrespectful of me and my time, you are being.

If you had put forth the effort either through a well-constructed video, or more easily (but potentially more respectfully) through text, you could have communicated with me much more quickly, much more efficiently, showing your intentionality, and illustrating your consideration and respect for me and my time.

I can time-slice, multi-task, and read your text much more quickly, exponentially more quickly, than I can while watching you talk on a video.

Furthermore, my various bots and AI-based self-hosted tools I've developed over the past 27 years to optimize my time, are able to help allow me to more accurately decide where to put my focus next.

If you want a personal connection, use my Calendly link right there on my profile page, and if you can find a slot that works for you, I am happy to make a human connection with you, through a more meaningful bidirectional real-time conversation, not a series of abstracted infomercials.

If you are thinking of sending me yet another generic low information asynchronous video, please think again. PLEASE DON'T!

Please be considerate and respectful of how precious time is for everyone.

I am responsible for a lot of organizations and by extension many people. When you wastefully take away my time from them, you hurt all of them too.

Feel free to send text, documents, etc. I can fly through (and often respond) to 10-20 messages, compared to the time that I have to drop everything and watch/listen/respond to your 10-20 second asynchronous low-value video.

To be clear, this is a generalization. If you have a video of high information density, and it is the most efficient and effective method for you to get your message across, then simply include a written text message with your video explaining this, and why I should take the time to view the video.

I am talking about the people just sending me video-only, not text. Please stop being so disrespectful and wasting so much precious time.