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I still think this is one aspect of Facebook that is often overlooked; they make it incredibly easy to contact people you know. Email addresses are a nightmare to the average user by comparison.
For me, that's the beginning of where the revolution will lie.
Paul Graham may be a bit out of touch. I've asked around and confirmed that the people in my life, at least, are confused at the idea of using email as a to do list. But he certainly knows how to get the tools that he wants made for him.
that's ridiculous. I would expect more from someone who likely remembers uucp and what/how email was designed for.
Instead of trying to re-invent what email is, just make it easier to do what people use it for. Make it smart and intuitive. The problem I have with all of these designer showcases is that how it functions is ultimately more important than how it looks. Neither this nor Mail.app showed any functionality that wasn't available in some way or another from any other client I've used.
One thing I would note is that Paul Graham is probably not a good data point. Most email users actually do use it as a messaging protocol but there is definitely a niche of users (such as Paul) who encounter this to do list effect.
Maybe target them specifically, premium prices ect. But the assumption about what email is for needs to be validated.
Good luck guys.
"Email is not a messaging protocol. It's a todo list." Speak for yourself. My primary use case is to send and receive messages with others. If a message includes things to be done, I'll put them in a TODO list, like I'd do with any other messaging protocol. The reason why reinventing email always fails is because email isn't broken.
The thought of making email more like a todo list is terrifying to me. I try to move valuable information and tasks out of email and into trusted systems that are designed specifically for those purposes as fast as possible. Testing out this guys hypothesis couldn't hurt, but I want nothing to do with it. I think the reason why reinventing email always fails is that it is generally skin deep.
If email is not a todo list, then how/why do tasks even get in there in the first place such that you need to move them out of there?
>Pixel perfect + Retina + Cloud The trifecta of the mobile apps. Sync all your email and tasks with our cloud based mobile app. The trifecta of buzzwords perhaps.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation with this dismissive, regurgitated comment. What have YOU done lately? Why dismiss something someone has worked hard on?
"Email is not a messaging protocol. It's a todo list." Speak for yourself. My primary use case is to send and receive messages with others. If a message includes things to be done, I'll put them in a TODO list, like I'd do with any other messaging protocol. The reason why reinventing email always fails is because email isn't broken.
I agree. I think email is broken for people in the manager schedule http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html That's why we keep hearing how painful email is from people like PG (someone clearly in the manager schedule) but a lot of makers don't really appreciate the pain I think the whole 'email is broken' thing should be phrased differently. I agree there is tons of pain. Maybe articulating it well IS the solut…