I Hate Email
I used to think that Donald Knuth was merely a being a crotchety old academic when he famously swore off email in 1990. Now I know better: in fact, I think he was far ahead of the curve in realizing what an enemy of productivity (and sanity) email can be.
When I was given my first email address, back in college, I eagerly awaited new messages, compulsively checking Pine during any lull in CS lab activity. Now, between PodWorks support, Cocoal.icio.us feedback, communications with friends and family, mailing lists, electronic billing notifications, weblog comments, and other assorted communications, I’ve come to dread opening Mail (and that’s just my home account!). I currently have something like 50 flagged messages at the top of my inbox, going back to the beginning of the month. They’re all messages I was glad to get, and all are worthy of a reply, but I don’t know when I’m going to be able to get to them.
Why am I breaking my long weblog silence to tell you this? Two reasons: first, to explain part of the reason it’s been so quite around here (I used have a weblog, now I have email!); and second to plead for your patience if you have sent me a message that I haven’t replied to. I assure you that I consider your message important—it’s just that somtimes I need to sleep.