Oh no. I love superhuman :(
Please don’t change it
Grammarly acquires Superhuman
111–120 of 144 posts
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdotally: The Superhuman users I've worked with start skimming e-mails and sending super-short replies. Sending a "Good job team" or questioning something in sentence 2 that would have been answered if they read all the way to sentence 5 of the e-mail is the way to clear their inbox. The inbox->outbox flow turns into the way to clear the inbox. It's not about better communication, it's about speedrunning their way…
This old-ish Newport essay comes to mind: > The knowledge sector’s insistence that productivity is a personal issue seems to have created a so-called “tragedy of the commons” scenario, in which individuals making reasonable decisions for themselves insure a negative group outcome. An office worker’s life is dramatically easier, in the moment, if she can send messages that demand immediate responses from her colleague…
> I think the point still stands about how one person speedrunning their inbox can make everyone else's inboxes that much worse.
I think you're looking a little too strictly through that Cal Newport quote.
There's another big problem that isn't external: The people who speedrun their e-mail like this (which isn't every Superhuman user, to be fair) are also harming their own understanding of those e-mails.
From what I've seen in a few people, it turns into a false sense of being productive while they self-sabotage their own communications. Inbox Zero becomes the goal and they think their job is done when those e-mails are all gone.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#113I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…
In the same boat. Tried Notion Mail and it wasn't quite at Superhuman's level, though I do anticipate they'll improve it.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know if it's uniquely American but I agree it is a very annoying term. It just means cash. Finance bros like to pretend they are "going into battle" or something when they go negotiate an acquisition, so the analogy is that you have a large store of gunpowder ready to deploy at a moment's notice when you want to go to war (go acquire a company).
On the plus side, when you're a seller, you want buyers who have this attitude. That they are going to war and the only way they can emerge victorious is by deploying an enormous amount in your direction. You want buyers who will brag to their friends about how much they spent.
I interviewed at Superhuman almost a decade ago, and the founder did indeed brag [repeatedly] to me about how they bought the superhuman.com domain for $300k.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#115I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…
We're building what you want:
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#116Superhuman user and former Grammarly user here. I'm a big fan of Superhuman as an email client and happily pay the premium price for it. I really hope they don't change what makes it great. I used to love Grammarly until they essentially ruined their product - much like Dropbox did. They took an app that worked perfectly and deprecated it, replacing it with an invasive keyboard replacement that was supposed to work e…
> Then they started acquiring other services I eventually cancelled as they tried to integrate them into their core service
I was struck by a snippet I read recently - I can't remember the organization being discussed - that I'll paraphrase as "The company is the product, and it's being sold to shareholders", and currently, it is very fashionable to sell the story of unceasing growth, so companies will do anything, including turning away existing customers, just to have a shot at growth so the share price can keep rising.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#117I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…
I’m using Shortwave and it’s nice! They’re also leaning into AI unfortunately but the core email experience is pretty good with nicer notification control and bundling features than Superhuman had.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#118I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…
After a day of trialing many apps, briefly settling on Gmail (iOS, and Unite to make a desktop app), I'm pretty happy with Spark for MacOS and iOS.
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
This old-ish Newport essay comes to mind: > The knowledge sector’s insistence that productivity is a personal issue seems to have created a so-called “tragedy of the commons” scenario, in which individuals making reasonable decisions for themselves insure a negative group outcome. An office worker’s life is dramatically easier, in the moment, if she can send messages that demand immediate responses from her colleague…
> I think the point still stands about how one person speedrunning their inbox can make everyone else's inboxes that much worse. I think you're looking a little too strictly through that Cal Newport quote. There's another big problem that isn't external: The people who speedrun their e-mail like this (which isn't every Superhuman user, to be fair) are also harming their own understanding of those e-mails. From what I…
That's also very true. Most of the people I've interacted with who communicate that way (the "one question per email" thing hits painfully close to home, lol) seem very... maybe "oblivious" is a polite way to say it. I guess I never questioned whether their inbox-speedrunning is why they're so oblivious vs. whether it takes an oblivious kind of person to think that's an effective way to conduct your comms :P
Re: Grammarly acquires Superhuman
#120I've been looking to replace Superhuman recently. None of their AI or Team features matter to me. I just wanted what they originally set out to build -- a super fast, keyboard driven, desktop email client. There are daily paper cut bugs and search issues that have persisted for many years, and I'm not going to stick around through this transition which will surely make the product worse. What do folks like for deskto…
Simplehuman for Gmail is what I use. It's a light weight browser extension that makes Gmail work like Superhuman with the same keyboard shortcuts and natural language snooze. https://simplehuman.email