Signal Ratio – Why I Fucking Hate Meetings

Recently, I stumbled upon a brilliant metric that perfectly captures the quality of communication – in meetings, in leadership, in life.
It’s called Signal Ratio.

Originally from engineering (signal-to-noise ratio), it’s now showing up in productivity circles and leadership talks. The core idea is dead simple:

How much of what you’re saying is actually signal – and how much is just noise?

Kevin O’Leary, a former Apple vendor, once said:

“Jobs had maybe 80/20 – 80% signal, 20% noise.
But the only person he knew who was better was Elon Musk.
He’s basically at 100% signal.”

That hit me hard.
Suddenly I understood why I fucking hate meetings.

Not because they’re boring.
Not because they’re long.
Not even because people talk too much.

But because the Signal Ratio is like 5/95.
5% signal.
95% bullshit.

And since I lead with Strategic Thinking in my Gallup strengths — with themes like Learner, Focus, Analytical and Intellection — this shit hits me even harder than most. I don’t just want action. I want clarity, precision, and ideas that matter.

---

🚀 What’s next?

Now I’m wondering — if AI can summarize meetings, why not measure Signal Ratio too?

Like seriously:

• How many decisions were made?
• How many actionable insights?

And at the end, just give me a clean stat:

Signal Ratio: 14% — you could’ve emailed this.

If that tool exists — I want it.
If it doesn’t — maybe we should build it.