One point he makes does bring up an interesting question though. The author complains about people using one-letter signatures instead of their name. What's the point of signing an email with your name when you're using your own email account? The from header is generally set to include your name already.
(I'm talking about strongly-held decisions or beliefs here. Not the sort of thing where a simple presentation of the facts will do.)
I don't chat, text, or tweet. I don't have a land line any more. Only a few people have my cell phone #. My office phone goes directly to voice mail.
But email is a different story. I don't have instant notification, so it doesn't interrupt me. I check it when I'm ready and I respond quickly, sometimes immediately, almost always within 24 hours. Modern spam filters have made this a breeze.
I bet about half the people I know I have never met, I don't know what they look like, and I've never heard their voice. But we have conducted so much business by email that I feel that I still know them well.
I remember that before email, getting something done was as much a matter of managing interruptions as focusing on the task at hand.
But email has helped me to once again become the master of my own time. I can't imagine getting much done any other way.
[I love hearing from all hn'ers by email. You will get a reply. And you can sign your email any way you want.]
I find that utterly annoying.
- I use colors which help with Question / Answer situations.
- I use single letter sign offs when on a cellphone responding.
- I use some txt speach when on a cellphone, not too crazy because sometimes thinking of a clever abbreviation is more painful than just writing the damn word out, also autocomplete helps. I also explicitly tell people that "u" is ok or "ur" or "k" or something in that nature, but things I can't figure out within 20 seconds are not.
So yea, reply to shitty txt speach "I dont get it, please say again without abbreviations" it annoys because they have to send it twice.
Reply to a shitty colored email with a massively colored one.
Single letter signoffs... wait what bothers you about this?
You always want "some kind of record". A record isn't a "ha ha, told you so" thing, but it keeps communications accurate and accountable. We've all dealt with situations where FUBARs happened because verbal communications were misinterpreted, or people simply lied because they knew there was little accountability.
