## Session III: Core principles and mental models

> [“Async isn’t slow; it’s choosing your interrupts.”](https://open-and-async.com/q/choosing-interrupts/)

### Discuss

- Be honest: where does our team reward looking busy over shipping outcomes — green dots, instant replies, a calendar with no white space?
- The book calls interruptions a tax that steals hours, not minutes. When did you last get a real four-hour block of focus? What ate it?
- If you read team morale as a gauge — an early warning, not a nice-to-have — what would ours be reading right now?

### Split the room

**For managers:** If you couldn’t see hours or online status, what would you measure instead — and could you defend it to your own boss?

**For individual contributors:** What’s one piece of “performance theater” you do because you think you’re being watched? What would you stop if you trusted you wouldn’t be judged for it?

### Debate

“If I can’t see people working, how do I know they are?” Argue the surveillance side. Then argue why the book says that question is the actual problem.

### Try it

For one week, everyone tracks the single most valuable thing they shipped each day — not hours, not activity. Compare notes at the next session.

---

From the [*Open & Async* book club guide](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/#principles).