This is the last entry in an arc inspired by Sweetness' sending me "E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone'". The thrust of the post is that people are so overwhelmed with email they're shutting it off. In some cases they're shutting it off for a while (like I do periodically) and in other cases, well, forever.I've written in earlier entries in this arc that I can understand that desire.
The concept is "email bankruptcy". Part 1 dealt with Fred Wilson, who didn't start the idea but who gave it wings. Part 2 discussed how email bankruptcy is infecting the work force and can be a boon to productivity and Part 3 considered how people are alerting their correspondents of their bankruptcy. Here we bring this arc to a close.
If there is a downside to completely turning a back on e-mail, it's not one many former users notice.Stanford computer science professor Donald E. Knuth started using e-mail in 1975 and stopped using it 15 years later. Knuth said he prefers to concentrate on writing books rather than be distracted by the steady stream of communication.
"I'd get to work and start answering e-mail -- three hours later, I'd say, "Oh, what was I supposed to do today?" Knuth said that he has no regrets. "I have been a happy man since Jan. 1 , 1990."
The critics of e-mail themselves have critics, who say copping out is a reactionary and isolationist way of dealing with modern communications.
Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor David J. Farber receives piles of e-mail as the administrator of the "Interesting People" technology news mailing list. He has no patience for e-mail bankruptcy.
"For a venture capitalist to say something like this -- he should get out of the technology field," Farber said.
Wilson, the venture capitalist, did not respond to a phone call placed to his firm -- or to an e-mailed request for comment.
Staff writer Sabrina Valle and staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
Hmm. I respect Dr. Knuth. He started using email when I was playing with the TX2 at Lincoln Labs.
I checked and yes, NextStage's email server would allow me to autorespond and I could write a "I may or may not get to your email". I had one partially typed in then deleted it. Sigh. My not acting has more to do with my being slow and a luddite more than a desire to continue receiving emails.
Sigh. Readers? Your thoughts?
I'll be speaking at the Society for New Communications Research Annual Awards Gala Summit on 1-2 Nov 07 in Boston. Come on by and say hello.
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