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I don't read your email threads

loganmarek.com

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: I don't read your email threads

#31

> Save a vibe today and send an IM instead of an email thread. I would rather the email honestly. IMs usually have the expectation that I'm going to respond to you "soon", which is an interruption/distraction. And they don't contain enough information so I have to start going back and forth with the other person. At least with email, most people recognize that you will respond in your own timing in the next 24-48 hou…

Some people absolutely do not expect a 24 hour response and will reply all in 30 minutes if you do not acknowledge it. Some of us work support development work that demands you cut all focus on your problem and start to write an email response and break away from what you were already working on.

Re: I don't read your email threads

#32
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and for a well-written email: d) Someone spent some time forming and writing down their thoughts, which seems to be an increasingly rare skill these days.

> increasingly skill This is increasingly ironic :)

Oops, fixed.

Re: I don't read your email threads

#33
post #16

Is this intentional ragebait? Calling IMs "actual communication" is .... odd. Email all but guarantees more thoughtful replies than IM. I'll agree that the example of simply tagging someone in a long quoted thread is not the way to go. The sender should have included a summary and an explanation of why the new recipient is suddenly added.

It reads as straight up intentional ragebait to me.

Especially when they say in the middle they already don't read email threads and use AI to summarize. But they still place a call to action at the end to not send email threads. Why would they want less context to feed their AI?

If mods on high granted the power I would certainly downvote this submission.

Re: I don't read your email threads

#34
post #17

I wish people would make shared white papers for discussions. People basically collaborate on the collected notes and decisions; with modern tools you can have history and attribution easily. Some threads become difficult to unravel.

Google Wave was ahead of its time (probably still is).

Re: I don't read your email threads

#35

> Save a vibe today and send an IM instead of an email thread. I would rather the email honestly. IMs usually have the expectation that I'm going to respond to you "soon", which is an interruption/distraction. And they don't contain enough information so I have to start going back and forth with the other person. At least with email, most people recognize that you will respond in your own timing in the next 24-48 hou…

I prefer email as well. Good luck to search in IM for old conversations where you decided something.

Also I have a rule to never answer right away. Have at least 15 minutes cool down, asking person may figured out the answer by themselves. Unless it's my direct manager...

Re: I don't read your email threads

#36
Old email threads have saved my bacon at work a lot. IM never has. When I get am IM, have a phone call, or engage in a hallway conversation that is work relevant I type it into an email later and send it to all concerned parties. I have never regretted doing this.

Re: I don't read your email threads

#37
post #34
post #17

I wish people would make shared white papers for discussions. People basically collaborate on the collected notes and decisions; with modern tools you can have history and attribution easily. Some threads become difficult to unravel.

Google Wave was ahead of its time (probably still is).

I was LITERALLY thinking of Wave when I wrote that!

Re: I don't read your email threads

#38
> If an email thread comes in that's longer than a few paragraphs, you're going straight to Copilot.

Not even that. Clearly someone was involved with an issue until I got involved. Whoever involved me need to explain the goal and the issue to me, then I can help. And that's the point. Someone wants MY help, so that SOMEONE needS to help me understand the history of it. And if that SOMEONE is unwilling to put in the time to do that, so why should I?

Re: I don't read your email threads

#39
post #16

Is this intentional ragebait? Calling IMs "actual communication" is .... odd. Email all but guarantees more thoughtful replies than IM. I'll agree that the example of simply tagging someone in a long quoted thread is not the way to go. The sender should have included a summary and an explanation of why the new recipient is suddenly added.

Agreed, the original thesis makes sense, but then it sort of goes off on a tangent of don't send any email threads.

If I get tagged on an email like this, I respond with something along the lines of: "what is the intention here? is it an ask or do i need to do something? do I need to be aware of something? please advise". This generally gets me a summary so I know what I am doing.

Re: I don't read your email threads

#40

Personally I prefer to be sent a full email thread over a message in chat, because a) I can ignore it until I have time to look at it b) You can see who else has already been involved in the conversation - seeing a fellow team member being involved can help avoid falling for situations where someone is trying to work around one of your colleagues who's already told them they can't have what they're asking for. c) The…

What's funny is that the points you raised are the exact things that work for me on Slack, and I've never found it to be an issue. And yes, Slack supports looping people into conversations they didn't previously have access to.

I imagine this is more of a company culture issue than an e-mail vs IM issue.

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