Note the "it went too long" evaluations were retrospective. I wonder what was thought during the conversations?
For illustration, there's a lot of interest around MIT in improving science and engineering education. A cell biology education VR project, obtaining domain expertise by pulling in researchers for interviews, reported a recurring challenge... of getting them to stop and leave. That fits TFA.
But I've had many similar conversations, as I use them for motivation, idea generation and exploration. And in order to reduce harm, I've had to adopt a practice, of asking early on, when do you want to make sure this conversation is over by. Because one interesting richly-interconnected topic easily leads to another. Even as I physically drift myself out the door, and otherwise nudge people towards wrapping up and getting back to their life. Else people risk missing flights, get calls from impatient spouses, and fail to finish work they'd intended to get done. The conversations are wonderful.* But maintaining conversation cost awareness can seemingly be a challenge.
* Before covid... a year ago now. If anyone can think of another setting for such conversations, I'd really love to find one.
For illustration, there's a lot of interest around MIT in improving science and engineering education. A cell biology education VR project, obtaining domain expertise by pulling in researchers for interviews, reported a recurring challenge... of getting them to stop and leave. That fits TFA.
But I've had many similar conversations, as I use them for motivation, idea generation and exploration. And in order to reduce harm, I've had to adopt a practice, of asking early on, when do you want to make sure this conversation is over by. Because one interesting richly-interconnected topic easily leads to another. Even as I physically drift myself out the door, and otherwise nudge people towards wrapping up and getting back to their life. Else people risk missing flights, get calls from impatient spouses, and fail to finish work they'd intended to get done. The conversations are wonderful.* But maintaining conversation cost awareness can seemingly be a challenge.
* Before covid... a year ago now. If anyone can think of another setting for such conversations, I'd really love to find one.