The Difference Between Asynchronous and Synchronous Communication

In the world of distributed system theory, this is a really big distinction. When you're doing synchronous communication between two parties, you're both doing the communication at the same time. And then there's networks that are asynchronous. Like the internet where like I'm sending you a message, I don't really know how long it's going to take to get there. It takes those five minute conversations and transforms them into a dozen messages.