# Open and Async

> The collaborative software development playbook for remote and distributed teams

Open and Async is a book by Ben Balter, who spent more than a decade at GitHub, about thriving and advancing your career in remote and distributed software development. Drawing on that time at GitHub—a company that was remote-first before it was fashionable—it shows engineering leaders and individual contributors how to work in the open, default to async communication, and measure impact instead of hours online.

## Book details

- **Title**: Open and Async: The collaborative software development playbook for remote and distributed teams
- **Author**: Ben Balter
- **Publication date**: July 21, 2026
- **Formats**:
  - **Paperback**: $29.99, 576 pages, ISBN 979-8-9957542-1-3
  - **eBook**: $9.99, ISBN 979-8-9957542-0-6
  - **Audiobook**: $14.95, 11.5 hours, synthetic (AI) narration, ISBN 979-8-9957542-3-7
- **BISAC**: BUS071000 (Leadership), BUS085000 (Organizational Behavior), COM051390 (Software Development & Engineering / Tools)
- **Publisher**: Open & Async LLC

## Who it’s for

- **Engineering leaders** (VP Eng, directors, engineering managers, tech leads): build remote teams that ship without constant meetings, create a culture of transparency and documentation, and keep your best people.
- **Individual contributors** (software developers, senior engineers, tech leads without reports): get visible, effective, and promotable through written communication, async collaboration, and impact instead of presence.

## What’s inside

Ten parts, each building on the last.

- **Part I: Foundations and definitions**: Remote, distributed, open, async—what the terms actually mean and why the distinction matters.
- **Part II: The case for open and async**: The business case, the personal case, and why how you work matters as much as what you work on.
- **Part III: Core principles and mental models**: Parallelization, flow, impact over input, and optimizing for developer happiness.
- **Part IV: Working in the open**: Why everything should have a URL, documentation as a superpower, and the rule of no surprises.
- **Part V: Asynchronous communication**: Speak like a human, chat responsibly, the etiquette of issues and pull requests, and when async isn’t the answer.
- **Part VI: Adopting and transitioning**: Refactoring for remote, navigating resistance, and why open and async initiatives fail.
- **Part VII: Leadership**: Decisions as documentation, leading like an engineer, one-on-ones, and weekly reporting that doesn’t suck.
- **Part VIII: Team health, culture, and sustainability**: Corporate self-care, navigating conflict asynchronously, and making the most of in-person time.
- **Part IX: Looking forward**: AI as a thought partner and agentic workflows in open, async teams.
- **Part X: The playbook in review**: Four threads, two checklists—one for leaders, one for ICs—and where to start tomorrow.

## Quotes from the book

All of them, with share cards, at https://open-and-async.com/q/.

- “Hours worked ≠ value created.” (*Impact Over Input*)
- “Meetings are where work goes to die.” (*Meetings Are a Point of Escalation*)
- “Writing scales; meetings don't.” (*Meetings Are a Point of Escalation*)
- “Silence is not consent; it's invisibility.” (*Work Loudly*)
- “Every workflow is a pull request waiting to happen.” (*A History of Remote Work at GitHub*)
- “If work isn't visible, it might as well not exist.” (*Working in the Open*)
- “Institutional memory shouldn't depend on individual memory.” (*Working in the Open*)
- “"Got a minute?" is anxiety in three words.” (*Chat Responsibly*)
- “Control doesn't scale; trust does.” (*Rethinking Management for Remote Teams*)
- “Nobody quietly quits a team that remembers their birthday.” (*Showing Colleagues They’re Valued*)
- “Working from home ≠ working remotely.” (*Introduction*)
- “Async is the operating system; remote is the hardware.” (*Introduction*)
- “Culture is whatever you tolerate twice.” (*Team Health, Culture & Sustainability*)
- “Tools amplify culture; they don't create it.” (*Why Open and Async Change Fails*)
- “Your team won't be braver than you are.” (*The Zen of Open and Async Work for Leaders*)
- “Every comment is a tiny meeting you just called.” (*The Etiquette of Issues & Pull Requests*)
- “Interruptions don't steal minutes; they steal hours.” (*Parallelization & Flow*)
- “Async isn't waiting. It's working.” (*Asynchronous Communications*)
- “Async is a default, not a dogma.” (*When Async Isn’t the Answer*)
- “If it's not written down, it wasn't decided.” (*Leaders Show Their Work*)
- “Decisions without URLs get relitigated forever.” (*Why Everything Should Have a URL*)
- “Charm doesn't commit to the repo.” (*What Leadership Looks Like in Open and Async*)
- “Surprises break trust faster than setbacks.” (*The Rule of No Surprises*)
- “AI didn't break async work. It vindicated it.” (*AI in Open and Async Work*)
- “Outsource your thinking and you outsource yourself.” (*AI as a Thought Partner*)
- “Proof beats persuasion.” (*Lead by Example: Make Others Jealous*)
- “The real risk isn't openness; it's opacity.” (*Why You Should Work in the Open*)
- “Problems don't age well; they age expensively.” (*The Andon Principle for Knowledge Work*)
- “Jargon hides meaning; plain language reveals it.” (*Speak Like a Human*)
- “An RTO mandate is an operating-model bailout.” (*Making the Most of In-Person Time*)
- “Bad tools don't lose files—they lose decisions.” (*Choosing the Right Collaboration Tools*)
- “Secrecy doesn't protect decisions—it just hides the bad ones.” (*Leaders Show Their Work*)
- “The most dangerous resistance looks like agreement.” (*Why Open and Async Change Fails*)
- “Remote-first is a mindset, not a mailing address.” (*Transitioning to Distributed and Remote-First*)
- “Your office has a single point of failure: its address.” (*Why Remote and Distributed Work Matters*)
- “Influence earned beats authority assigned.” (*Rethinking Management for Remote Teams*)
- “Avoidance isn't peace—it's compound interest on damage.” (*Handling Conflict Remotely*)
- “Presence theater, not productivity.” (*Chat Responsibly*)
- “A DRI with a URL beats a committee with a mandate.” (*Lead Like an Engineer*)
- “The best meeting is the one a URL made unnecessary.” (*Meetings Are a Point of Escalation*)
- “An ugly working URL beats a beautiful deck.” (*Work Loudly*)
- “Async isn't slow; it's choosing your interrupts.” (*Core Principles of Open and Async-First Teams*)
- “Markup is a contract; formatting is a costume.” (*Retool Your Documents*)
- “Every tool is an opinion in disguise.” (*Making the Case for Open and Async Workflows*)
- “Social capital is conflict insurance.” (*Work Should Be Fun*)
- “Top talent chooses culture over compensation.” (*Work Should Be Fun*)
- “Invisible work hides invisible problems.” (*The Andon Principle for Knowledge Work*)
- “No news isn't good news.” (*The Etiquette of Issues and Pull Requests*)
- “Organizations that resist remote work are competing on legacy hardware.” (*Why Remote and Distributed Work Matters*)
- “Hierarchy is a cost; make sure it's worth paying.” (*Rethinking Management for Remote Teams*)
- “A job that fits your life outlasts one that fights it.” (*Why Remote and Distributed Work Matters*)
- “The office isn't where the work happens; it's where the commute ends.” (*Why Remote and Distributed Work Matters*)
- “The managers people stay with longest are the ones who'd help them leave.” (*Career Conversations*)
- “If leaders need to be physically present to lead, they're not leading—they're supervising.” (*Leading in Open and Async Environments*)
- “Time zone distribution isn't the problem—pretending everyone is in the same building is.” (*Working Across Time Zones*)
- “Chat is where information goes to die.” (*Choosing the Right Collaboration Tools*)

## FAQ

### Isn’t this just another remote work book?

No. Most remote work books are about where you work. This one’s about how: working in the open, writing things down, and treating meetings as an escalation path. It takes sides and shows its receipts. And if you came for webcam lighting tips, wrong shelf.

### We’re hybrid, not fully remote. Is this for us?

Yes, maybe more than anyone. The moment one person dials in, the hallway becomes a liability. Working in the open means the person on the call gets the same context as the people in the room.

### Won’t async slow us down?

Async doesn't mean never meeting. It means starting in writing and escalating to a call when the discussion actually needs one. The book has a full chapter on when async isn't the answer, and another on making the meetings you keep worth having. Curious what your current ones cost? Run the numbers. [Meeting cost calculator](https://open-and-async.com/meeting-cost/)

### Doesn’t remote work kill culture?

Culture isn't built in hallways. It's built in how teams make decisions, resolve conflict, and celebrate wins. The book covers team health, showing employees they're valued, making the most of in-person time, and why work should be fun—none of which needs a shared office.

### It’s 576 pages. Will my team actually read it?

Not in one sitting. The free book club guide breaks it into ten sessions, one per part, each with discussion prompts, a manager and IC split, and an exercise. Short on calendar? Run the single 90-minute quick track instead. The last part ends with separate next-step checklists for leaders and ICs, so everyone leaves with something to try. [Book club guide](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/)

### How do I evaluate people I don’t see?

That's the wrong metric. The book's central principle—impact over input—shows how to measure what people deliver rather than how long they're online. If you can only evaluate people by watching them, you have a management problem, not a remote work problem.

## Book club guide

A free guide for teams and reading groups: ten sessions, one per part, with discussion prompts, a manager/IC split, and an exercise. [Full guide](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/).

- [Session I: Foundations and definitions](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/foundations.md)
- [Session II: The case for open and async](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/the-case.md)
- [Session III: Core principles and mental models](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/principles.md)
- [Session IV: Working in the open](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/open.md)
- [Session V: Asynchronous communications](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/async.md)
- [Session VI: Adopting and transitioning](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/transitioning.md)
- [Session VII: Leadership](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/leadership.md)
- [Session VIII: Team health, culture, and sustainability](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/culture.md)
- [Session IX: Looking forward](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/looking-forward.md)
- [Session X: The playbook in review](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/conclusion.md)

## Author

Ben Balter spent more than a decade at GitHub, most recently as Director of Hubber Enablement, where he helped thousands of GitHubbers do their best remote work. Earlier roles there: Chief of Staff for Security, enterprise PM, and GitHub’s first Government Evangelist. Before GitHub: attorney, Presidential Innovation Fellow, and member of the White House’s first agile development team. The US CTO once called him one of “the baddest of the badass innovators.” He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from the George Washington University and is a member of the DC Bar.

- [Website](https://ben.balter.com)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/benbalter)
- [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/benbalter.com)
- [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/author/benbalter)

## Where to buy

- [Amazon Kindle](https://open-and-async.com/go/amazon?src=llms)
- [Bookshop.org](https://open-and-async.com/go/bookshop?src=llms)
- [Barnes & Noble](https://open-and-async.com/go/bn?src=llms)
- [Kobo](https://open-and-async.com/go/kobo?src=llms)
- [Apple Books](https://open-and-async.com/go/apple?src=llms)
- [Amazon paperback](https://open-and-async.com/go/amazon-paperback?src=llms)
- [Every other store](https://open-and-async.com/go/ubl?src=llms): Books2Read lists all of them
- [Audiobook](https://open-and-async.com/listen/): Audible, Libro.fm, Apple Books, Spotify, Kobo, Google Play, and more
- [Bulk orders](https://open-and-async.com/bulk-orders/): team and event copies

## MCP server

A Model Context Protocol server that puts the book’s async-first *method* (not the manuscript) in your AI assistant. The method tools work on any project, no book required; the reference tools answer from the book’s public summaries, always cited and linked. Free to run and open source.

- [Package on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@open-and-async/mcp): @open-and-async/mcp
- [Source](https://github.com/open-and-async/mcp): open-and-async/mcp on GitHub
- [One-click Claude Desktop install](https://github.com/open-and-async/mcp/releases/latest/download/open-and-async.mcpb): open the downloaded .mcpb
- Install in Claude Code: `claude mcp add open-async -- npx -y @open-and-async/mcp`
- Install in GitHub Copilot (VS Code): `code --add-mcp '{"name":"open-async","command":"npx","args":["-y","@open-and-async/mcp"]}'`
- Install in Any MCP client: `npx -y @open-and-async/mcp`
- Draft a decision doc from a blank page — a structured ADR with tradeoffs and reversibility.
- Turn “let’s hop on a call” into an async artifact, with an owner and a deadline.
- Pressure-test a status update against the “work loudly, no surprises” rubric before you post.
- Settle sync vs. async in seconds — with the rule behind the call.