Mar 9, 2023 · 15m · founders-journal

How to Not F*ck Up Your Meetings

Alex Lieberman · 13m spoken Jesse Pujji · 2s spoken

0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of The Crazy Ones, host Alex Lieberman presents a seven-part tactical framework to eliminate workplace meeting fatigue, optimize calendar efficiency, and transform meetings into high-impact decision-making sessions.

Chapters · click to jump

3 statements ▾

Lieberman: Meetings carry the highest opportunity cost of all communication open →

Lieberman: A one-hour meeting with five people costs five hours open →

Lieberman: Meetings are often a lazy alternative to doing work open →

1 statement ▾

Lieberman: Schedule meetings for two-thirds of estimated duration to prevent tangents open →

3 statements ▾

Lieberman: Meetings are strictly for small groups making high-impact decisions open →

Lieberman: Initial brainstorming should be done asynchronously, not in meetings open →

Lieberman: Status updates belong in email, not synchronous meetings open →

1 statement ▾

Lieberman: Meetings are products and attendees are customers open →

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Alex holds 99.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Alex as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Alex pushing back 0.0

speaking balance: gold is Alex, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:15 Introductory soundbite

No guest combativeness occurred in this solo monologue episode beyond Jesse's brief intro greeting tag.

Hardest push from Alex ▶ 3:50 Rejecting default meeting lengths

Alex challenges the conventional corporate assumption that meetings must fill default 30- or 60-minute calendar blocks.

Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:15 Intro greeting tag

No schooling took place between host and guest due to the single-speaker journal format.

Alex holds their own ▶ 2:40 Quantifying aggregate team meeting costs

Alex shares his operational experience by calculating the true five-hour opportunity cost of a five-person, one-hour meeting.

the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each

Chapter	Topic	Alex as informed peer	Guest teaching	Guest disagreement	Alex pushing back	Why
	The Epidemic of Bad Meetings and the Importance of Communication	0	0	0	0	This is a solo monologue segment where Alex Lieberman introduces his framework on meetings as a last resort, with no active guest dialogue.
	Lesson 2: Slashing Meeting Lengths and the Meeting Cost Meter	0	0	0	0	Alex continues his solo breakdown, pitching a business concept for a real-time meeting cost ticker and advocating shorter calendar blocks.
	Lesson 3: Applying Amazon's Two-Pizza Rule for Meeting Size	0	0	0	0	Alex details Amazon's two-pizza rule and memo culture in a solo presentation without guest participation.
	Lesson 5: Defining What Meetings Are and Aren't For	0	0	0	0	Alex outlines what meetings should not be used for, treating the segment as an instructional solo lecture.
	Lesson 7: Preserving Learnings Through Meeting Minutes	0	0	0	0	Alex concludes his monologue by explaining why meeting minutes are critical to preserve ephemeral discussions and decision history.

Statements from this episode (8)

Insight

Lieberman: Meetings carry the highest opportunity cost of all communication

“A meeting is a form of communication in a company that has the highest opportunity cost of time. So the bar should be super high for when you call a meeting.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 2:31

Insight

Lieberman: A one-hour meeting with five people costs five hours

“And a one hour meeting with five people isn't a one hour meeting. That's so important to understand. It's a five hour meeting in terms of the trade off for all people that are in attendance.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 2:54

Opinion

Lieberman: Meetings are often a lazy alternative to doing work

“And I find meetings are oftentimes a lazy attempt to get something done. Something needs to be done, and the easiest thing to do is for you to just throw time on a calendar instead of just doing the thing now.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 3:05

Insight

Lieberman: Schedule meetings for two-thirds of estimated duration to prevent tangents

“Make meetings two thirds as long as you think they need to be. One of the worst practices is when a meeting goes the full time, just because that's what the calendar said. And we all do this in life. When we give ourselves a certain amount of time to finish a …”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 3:50

Insight

Lieberman: Meetings are strictly for small groups making high-impact decisions

“Three to five people attend a meeting to make an important decision that has cross organizational implications.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 10:42

Insight

Lieberman: Initial brainstorming should be done asynchronously, not in meetings

“Meetings are also not for initial brainstorms. Those should be done independently and then shared over docs or email, and then you can come together to make a joint decision around that brainstorm via a meeting.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 11:07

Insight

Lieberman: Status updates belong in email, not synchronous meetings

“And finally, meetings are not for status updates. Those should be sent via email.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 11:45

Insight

Lieberman: Meetings are products and attendees are customers

“A meeting is a product and its customers are its attendees.”

Alex Lieberman Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 12:45

How to Not F*ck Up Your Meetings

How this conversation actually went

Statements from this episode (8)

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