I disagree with this strongly, mostly because I hate conversations or meeting where people debate something which has a factual answer which someone with a laptop&#x2F;internet&#x2F;shell&#x2F;calculator&#x2F;IM client&#x2F;Google can answer definitively in 10 seconds.  Instead, people waste minutes (or, worse, say something will be tabled until later, perhaps calling an entirely different meeting!) to deal with it.<p>If you look at the most productive meetings at places like Google, people have data and processing capability to hand, and end up referring to it.  If that is &quot;IM the guy in another state who isn&#x27;t needed for the meeting but has the a answer to this specific question&quot;, easy choice.