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Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

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Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#81

Post by johnchristopher »

stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Here's something that has been in the back of my mind for some time. It's not 100% reliable, nor is it adequately tested but it's a thought:

When I start a conversation, when I am the initiator in the exchange, I use my favourite mean of communication (email or whatever). When I receive a message I go along the sender's favourite mean of communication.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#83

Post by kungtotte »

rtpg wrote: post #59
cortesoft wrote: post #6

I never mark email as read, nor do I move it out of my inbox. I have something like 800k unread emails in my inbox. However, I don't need to 'declare email bankruptcy' nor do I need to clear out my inbox.. I just don't pay any attention to the read or unread status. My inbox IS my archive. My system is this: When I check my email, I make sure I mark the most recent email as read. Then, I look back until I find the ne…

So the Inbox Zero (and Getting Things Done, which is basically the overlying philosophy) is basically for people for which the status quo doesn't work. If you're able to manage your data without an empty inbox, that's great! But if you're "suffering" from your e-mail, Inbox Zero is great for a couple reasons: - The rules are simple. Read it, then archive, reply immediately, or archive it but put "reply to this email"…

I feel like Inbox Zero is mostly for people that receive massive quantities of email that they also have to act on.

For people like me who mostly receive updates and notifications via email and only occasionally receive actionable content through email it doesn't make sense to have some sort of superset of methods on top of what my email software already provides.

I read the stuff that's interesting to me, I pin things I need to take care of later or remember (I use Inbox), I reply to things that need replying to which typically only happens a handful of times per week, and that's that.

If I ever get to the point where I am pinning several emails per week and find that I have to act or reply on more than the handful of emails per week that I already do I will consider a method for staying on top of my inbox but until then the built-in tools already do it well enough for me.

Also I would start by looking into the tools themselves to see how they could help me, rather than inventing a set of rules for how to use my inbox. Filtering, bundles in Inbox, etc.

But hey, to each their own. I would get stressed out with an Inbox Zero mindset.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#84

Post by astrobe_ »

stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Same thing as IRC. Recommend clients that don't suck for the platforms they are using, and that are adapted to their technical level.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#85

Post by rtpg »

kungtotte wrote: post #83
rtpg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the Inbox Zero (and Getting Things Done, which is basically the overlying philosophy) is basically for people for which the status quo doesn't work. If you're able to manage your data without an empty inbox, that's great! But if you're "suffering" from your e-mail, Inbox Zero is great for a couple reasons: - The rules are simple. Read it, then archive, reply immediately, or archive it but put "reply to this email"…

I feel like Inbox Zero is mostly for people that receive massive quantities of email that they also have to act on. For people like me who mostly receive updates and notifications via email and only occasionally receive actionable content through email it doesn't make sense to have some sort of superset of methods on top of what my email software already provides. I read the stuff that's interesting to me, I pin thin…

That's a good point. If E-mail is your RSS, then this might not work for you.

Part of it is definitely feeding into an urge to be an e-mail completionist (for me this has ended up with me unsubscribing from a _lot_ of email notifications), so there is an argument that IZ feeding into the obsessive parts of ourselves.

The whole "Getting Things Done" mindset is that you have to make a call on everything, so you have to act on it. Like if you get a promo coupon, you need to set some time to go browse the website if you're thinking of using it. Nothing takes 0 seconds, right?

It's the sort of stuff to apply if you feel like your time is being sapped away an you're not sure why. As one of those people, it's helped me a lot, so I recommend it because I know others out there are like that... but no point putting a Band-Aid where there's no problem right?

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#86

Post by walterbell »

johnchristopher wrote: post #81
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Here's something that has been in the back of my mind for some time. It's not 100% reliable, nor is it adequately tested but it's a thought: When I start a conversation, when I am the initiator in the exchange, I use my favourite mean of communication (email or whatever). When I receive a message I go along the sender's favourite mean of communication.

It depends on the practical need for synchronicity. When async is ok (intervals of hours or days betweeen responses are acceptable), even a small group conversation can be migrated from FB to email, with a short explanation.

It is also possible to receive a message on one channel, while replying on another channel.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#87

Post by xerophyte12932 »

decasteve wrote: post #38
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

The only solution I can see is making sure you have their email addresses and reach out to them with meaningful emails. They all still have email addresses. One of my favourite things is reconnecting with people after time apart. With tools like Facebook, this rarely happens any more. It feels weird not to see someone for a while, then you reconnect in person and know too much about what's gone on in their lives. It…

I disagree. It gives you stuff to talk about when you meet. Ask details of things you saw in a post or a picture etc etc.

Besides, there are so so so many aspects of people's lives they do NOT post or tweet about. My "reconnect after a long time" chats are usually spent exploring those

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#88

Post by lucaspiller »

stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

I set my dad (in his 70s) up on Gmail and he uses that to contact me, my uncle and a few friends. For the first year he used "Home" as a subject and put the time he sent the email in the body, but he seems to have understood that isn't needed now.

I think what helped adoption was that both myself and my uncle were living in different countries, so email was the easiest way to reach us given the timezones. He also found out how to email photos, so he likes sharing what he has been up to and seeing what we are doing.

Emails are basically the same as letters, which he is was used to writing, so it was fairly easy for him to understand that. I haven't tried introducing him to a chat app, but I don't think he would be able to get it so easily.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#89

Post by lucaspiller »

decasteve wrote: post #38
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

The only solution I can see is making sure you have their email addresses and reach out to them with meaningful emails. They all still have email addresses. One of my favourite things is reconnecting with people after time apart. With tools like Facebook, this rarely happens any more. It feels weird not to see someone for a while, then you reconnect in person and know too much about what's gone on in their lives. It…

> I'd rather get the yearly email update from old friends, than to track their lives voyeuristically through the web.

This is a good idea. I should starting writing something like this, as I know my older family members would enjoy it.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#90

Post by AckSyn »

oever wrote: post #73
Puts wrote: post #58

The reason nothing has replaced email yet, even tough it's an old and clonky protocol is because it's an open standard and people don't make standards any more. Today you make services (most often based on HTTP because it's a protocol any 20yr old junior programmer can handle) that are locked in, harvesting has much data about it's users as possible desperately hoping that it could monetize on this data one day.

I wish this was a newsgroup.

alt.ynews would be nice
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