The Benefits of Asynchronous Communication

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Correction history

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 29 July 2026 · corrected by Selen Ikbal Uslu

   Corrected an embellished Cal Newport survey claim, an entirely fabricated Doist statistics/facts passage, an unverifiable Automattic/HBR quote, an oversimplified insight-neuroscience finding, a misattributed and mischaracterized Adam Grant procrastination study, and a misattributed 'diffuse mode' term credited to the wrong researcher.

   Before

   Article attributed a specific 'survey of knowledge workers' finding to Cal Newport's real book that the book does not actually contain (it argues from case studies, not survey data). It stated Doist was founded in 2009 with an async-first culture 'since its founding' and operates across 60 countries, when Doist was actually founded in 2007 and became async-first a few years after founding; it also cited fabricated 32%/24% productivity statistics from a nonexistent 2020 Doist publication - these specific numbers actually trace to an unrelated 2024 Miro report about a different topic. It cited an unverifiable Harvard Business Review interview quote attributed to Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg. It oversimplified real Kounios/Jung-Beeman insight-neuroscience research by conflating findings across multiple papers. It misdated a real Adam Grant co-authored study (Shin & Grant) from 2020 to 2016 and mischaracterized its actual curvilinear finding (moderate procrastination helps, too much or too little hurts) as a simple linear 'delay improves creativity' claim - a misattribution pattern that has recurred with Adam Grant citations elsewhere in this fact-check project. And it attributed the term 'diffuse mode' to Moshe Bar's real 2009 research, when that specific term is actually a popularization by learning-science writer Barbara Oakley, not Bar's own terminology.

   After

   Newport passage reframed to accurately describe his case-study-based argument rather than an invented survey finding. Doist passage rewritten to state only the real, verifiable facts (2007 founding, later shift to async-first) without the fabricated statistics. Automattic/Mullenweg quote reframed as his general publicly-stated philosophy rather than a specific unverifiable HBR quote. The insight-neuroscience passage corrected to accurately reflect the real underlying research. The Adam Grant citation corrected to the real 2020 Academy of Management Journal paper (Shin & Grant) with its real curvilinear finding. The Bar passage corrected to describe his real finding (positive mood broadens associative thinking) while accurately noting 'diffuse mode' as a related but separately-popularized term.

   Why: This continues a recurring pattern flagged earlier in this project: Adam Grant's real research keeps appearing with misattributed years, journals, or mischaracterized findings across multiple WNF articles, suggesting a systematic generation-time error specific to this one researcher's citations.

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Full contribution timeline

1. Correction 29 July 2026

   Selen Ikbal Uslu: Corrected an embellished Cal Newport survey claim, an entirely fabricated Doist statistics/facts passage, an unverifiable Automattic/HBR quote, an oversimplified insight-neuroscience finding, a misattributed and mischaracterized Adam Grant procrastination study, and a misattributed 'diffuse mode' term credited to the wrong researcher.

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