On topic. I think it depends on the information. Factual information, design requirements, anything quantitative, anything that needs to be referred back to, should be communicated in writing. Justifications and decision making however is often best done face to face as the latency is kept to a minimum. Asking someone why did you take this decision, why that, how about, could we? over email takes a lot of time, whereas doing it face to face allows you to quickly bang through all the important questions and sign off on decisions.

Really important thing in these types of meetings is to have a note taker / scribe who is independent, or get an automated transcript so you can refer back, especially if you are working in an adversarial environment with competing interests / views.

Uhm, text never works flawlessly!

Direct face-to-face communication has the benefit of additional cues (facial expression) and ability to interrupt and explain any disagreements and misunderstandings right away.

Text has the benefit of being easily referenced (whether for clarification or historical referral), as you point out, and allows one to think through before replying (though that's not excluded from live conversation: "I need some time to process this").

As others point out, this means there is no universal answer: but it also means that for whatever tough decisions you need to communicate, it's best done with a live conversation, followed by a written note.

Then do the negotiation and decision face-to-face.

Otherwise your face-to-face talk is just everyone waiting for their turn, trying to remember which points they still need to reply to, and nobody listens to anybody else.

Having a clear goal (that everybody knows) for any discussion involving multiple people is a must, definitely.

For family, friends, and personal relationships, there's nothing that replaces being together in the same time and place. But that's for conveying emotions, not only information.

I think you effectively support agile manifesto's point here: there is nothing agile about long discussions over weeks and months.

I refute this claim explicitly.

Written communications which are competently complete are superior to face to face in that memory and real time interpretation fail in comparison to the availability of objectively empirical reference.

The operating imperative is “complete”, and that all sides are “competently” literate.

That's completely false. There are so many ways to misinterpret any communication.

I've so far learned that it's not even sufficient to be "completely" precise: people will "read between the lines" or simply glance over some words and not give weight to every word you may have chosen carefully. And that's normal in a human communication.

Sweet point to me is having a video call (in remote work) where you are taking notes together and agree on summary points (actions, decisions, any points of confusion and contention...) at the end.

Is this an example of "complete" writing that anyone "competently literate" should get? (I obviously fail, though maybe it's due to me having a degree)

Those who are not “competent” readers, those who skim without obligation, those who lack established conventions for due diligence, they are troublesome and put the burden of minimum standards upon others.

A minimum degree is one way of establishing that such standards are met.

It may not be seen as relevant, though college level literacy is a standard which supports my point, and is undermined by your response.

I recommend taking responsibility for becoming a more diligent reader. You will benefit in many ways! Such as knowing and appreciating concise qualitative written requirements when you see them.

Job postings require degrees for a multitude of reasons other than introducing a common standard of communication (like proof of experience and background, certification and legal purposes)

I am a pretty dilligent reader. Does not help at all when everybody else is not a dilligent writer (and even those who are, they are not all the time).

You can either keep enforcing your point in your work (and social) environment and get frustrated, or accept that any form of communication requires repeating, examples and explaining in a different way, no matter how precise, concise and to the point you are. I've tried the former, and while it allows you to consider yourself smarter than everybody else, even that wanes after a while.

How many times have you spent hours+ discussing a topic only to walk away and someone to say “oh, and one more thing…” only to finally get to the most important missing piece?

If you don’t expect others to be there “at the beck and call”, where your arse will be on the line for functional results, the pseudo-contract of explicit text is king!

I'm quite extroverted, face to face is risky for me I'll have a great time but miss the point if I'm not focused. Text removes the pleasantries and makes it business-first.

In the WFH/post-COVID era the main reason we (in engineering) still do face to face is to keep Agile grifters in a job. Would be terrible if people could just write what they wanted without a handler there to marshal.

I’m an introspective introvert, so don’t mind me!

One thing decades of software development teaches us: no one knows how to do it right reliably and consistently. No silver bullet. No one right way. Try ideas that seem to make sense and have worked for others, but avoid ideologies and self-proclaimed experts.