

Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing by Lewis Carroll (1890) - Gravityloss
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38065/38065-h/38065-h.htm

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mikro2nd
"when you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your
friend, ... put it aside till the next day"

I have a similar policy. Upon receiving an email that makes me hyperventilate
even a little, or sets my pulse racing just a bit, by all means draft a reply
immediately -- frequently emotional and full of invective -- but the set it
aside for _at least_ 24 hours. 48 in more severe cases. Then, and only then,
re-read the message that got me all hot and bothered in the first place, re-
read my draft reply (assuming I did that) and then redraft as needed before
hitting "Send".

I call this my "24-hour Rule" and apply it always.

Then there's the "Never Hit Send While After Even a Single Drink Rule"... but
that's another thing for another day.

~~~
CPLX
A good test for this kind of thing is to ask these three questions for every
statement you make in a confrontational communication:

1\. Does this have to be said?

2\. Does it have to be said now?

3\. Does it have to be said by me?

If you can't answer all three questions with a strong and affirmative yes,
then delete the statement.

~~~
robobro
From Buddhism, "5 factors of speech":

[1] "Do I speak at the right time, or not?

[2] "Do I speak of facts, or not?

[3] "Do I speak gently or harshly?

[4] "Do I speak profitable words or not?

[5] "Do I speak with a kindly heart, or inwardly malicious?

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learnstats2
This was the most familiar:

"My eighth Rule. When you say, in your letter, “I enclose cheque for £5”, or
“I enclose John’s letter for you to see”, leave off writing for a moment—go
and get the document referred to—and put it into the envelope. Otherwise, you
are pretty certain to find it lying about, after the Post has gone!"

~~~
tapan_k
I appreciate Thunderbird every time it reminds me to add attachment(s) if it
finds that keyword in the email text.

~~~
richardbrevig
gmail does this too. I've been caught several times having forgotten to
actually attach the file.

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shabble
Mentioned almost as an aside, but I'd never heard of 'cross-writing'[1]
before, and now having looked a few examples, I can quite imagine how painful
it would be to read.

[1] [http://blog.paperblanks.com/2013/03/cross-
writing/](http://blog.paperblanks.com/2013/03/cross-writing/)

~~~
jerf
You know, CSS can do this too, nowadays. Perhaps some new... ah...
"research"... is necessary to see whether this can increase our ability to
read online as well.

It's that "April" sort of research one does, if you know what I mean.

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bshimmin
The "On registering Correspondence" section is rather fascinating - neurotic,
but probably extremely helpful for someone who received a large number of
letters. I wonder what he would've made of "Inbox Zero"!

~~~
kissickas
I think he would have found threaded emails with labeling an acceptable
replacement.

~~~
Tloewald
Exactly — the stuff on keeping a mail register essentially amounts to manually
creating the equivalent of an email client, complete with tracking
conversation threads, subject lines, figuring out which messages need replies,
and which messages are urgent or require further action.

One thing which struck me is that his example numbering system had exceeded
22000, and I doubt he logged spam.

~~~
keenerd
> his example numbering system had exceeded 22000

There was a lot of correspondence going around. In Carroll's time, good cities
would deliver and pick up mail from your home four times a day. (And now
plenty of people check their email less often.)

~~~
Tloewald
And it was also doing the job of your telephone.

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snake_plissken
I consider writing letters the top way to actually keep in touch, even if no
one ever writes back, and it is a great exercise of the mind and body. When I
first started writing letters, I was astounded by how difficult it was to
write legible and coherent sentences. There were a lot of scribbled out words
or sections and it was like I had forgotten how to write. It's very different
from writing notes or the everyday writing that you do.

I don't do it that often, I think on average my friends who have moved away
get 1 or 2 a year, but I usually include some extra stuff like a thumb drive
with some music/mixes or a trinket I happened to buy that I thought someone
would appreciate.

Also IMHO, there is also something sepcial about getting a package or letter
in the mail that is unexpected and isn't a pre-approved credit card.

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ta92929
The point about putting your full address on the letter reminds me of
Microsoft Outlook's irritating habit of stripping email addresses when
forwarding emails.

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imglorp
Surprisingly, it turns out the "Wonderland Stamp Case" was a real product: an
Alice themed folder with slots for the different types of stamps. Who thought
merchandising a fiction franchise started with George Lucas?

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Wonderland+Stamp+Case&t=ffcm&iax=1...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Wonderland+Stamp+Case&t=ffcm&iax=1&ia=images)

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suprfnk
"And never, never, dear Madam (N.B. this remark is addressed to _ladies only_
: no man would ever do such a thing), put “Wednesday”, simply, as the date!"

"A Postscript is a very useful invention: but it is not meant (as so many
_ladies_ suppose) to contain the real gist of the letter"

Interesting to see how society has changed in a hundred years. This would
probably cause a bit of a fuss if it were written today.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Yeah, today instead of an amusing observation that celebrates our differences,
it would become fodder to feed a conflict. It really was a gentler time.

~~~
AndrewOMartin
I will wait 24 hours before responding to your comment in the way I initially
intended to.

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tempodox
Wonderful. Words to live by :)

