Back from “break”, my inbox is pretty clean (because I’m the unhealthy type that keeps it clean at all times, weekends, holidays, and vacations be damned). But anything that needs a bit of effort tends to hang until I’m at my desk. Here’s what’s left and what I did.

I’m like within 30 min or 6 days. I like that email is async, and some delay is actually desirable. But if it’s been over a week, I think that’s too slow. That said, I do love digging up an email from many many years ago and replying just for kicks.

David Bushell, after battling with a contact form for years, just said screw it and now just publishes an email address on his contact page. Kind of a zero-tech solution to allow someone visiting a webpage to send a message. Just… use the thing you already know how to use. I like it honestly. Are…

Reader Tyler Mercer writes in with a link to a nice essay from Terry Godier about the underlying systems of the internet. The reason your mee-maw and your bank and your boss can all reach you at the same email address is that the protocol that made it possible was published more than forty years…

Article from Dan Mercer that’s an obvious must-link from this blog. His opener sets the stage: In her book Attention Span, UC Irvine informatics professor Gloria Mark describes a study in which her team shut off email for a group of office workers for a week, then compared their behavior to the previous three weeks. The…

I tried to unsubscribe from the World of Hyatt emails I was getting. They have an obnoxious email setting screen with lots of negatives to figure out. Like you decline to agree to opt-out to not receive email communications. But also they say: 3. Write to (include World of Hyatt membership number):    World of…

This is a boring story that will impress no one. I needed to look around at options for a third-party company to help with something business-related. I had contact information for three vendors I wanted to talk to. Email addresses, naturally. I communicated with all three of them via email and learned what I needed…

Nice essay from Zachary Kai with many quotable bits! Social media platforms rise and fall like ancient empires sped up a thousand times. Yet email endures. Like the postal service or the printed book. Is it any coincidence these technologies remain my great loves? They share a quality I struggle to name. Perhaps it’s permanence…

Justin Jackson on how connecting with people face-to-face can be so much more powerful than anything text-based: I’m convinced that many of society’s problems come from how we communicate online. Social media is a big part of this, but so are the text-based chat tools we use with friends, family, and coworkers. We have a…

I started watching Hacks the other day. Kinda fun show. There was a scene where Ava and her agent are talking and Ava had gotten an email that included a bunch of other emails in a thread and it revealed some detail to Ava she wasn’t supposed to know. Barely important to the plot at…