

Why email is broken and what we can do to fix it - jeffepp
http://blog.fetchnotes.com/post/27340726341/why-email-is-broken-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-it

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evertonfuller
Email is not broken.

It does what it does perfectly.

All these calls for to-do functionality, events planning, etc. Nobody needs it
except the writers of these articles. Just use other applications for it. We
don't need to shake up email just because you want to.

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alexschiff
The problem with email is that it's no longer a communication tool but a
representation of the things you need to do. If it was just about
communication, then that's one thing, but that's not what it is anymore.
That's why you see so many people email themselves or say "yeah email me to
remind me". But when you go down that path it's just an unorganized firehose.
If we're stuck with communication tools representing "what we need to do",
shouldn't we be building better tools to support that rather than saying "eh
it's good enough"?

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voyou
What I don't know that I've ever seen in these kind of "replace email"
articles is an investigation of why, if email is so unsuited to this task, it
is so widely used this way. It may turn out that the things the author thinks
are disadvantages are closely related to advantages of email. For example, the
complaint that, with email, anyone can "add something to your to-do list";
sure, that's a problem, but the fact that I can just ask any person I run into
to email me a reminder without having to fiddle with my email system to allow
them to do that, is actually a big advantage. The challenge for an email
replacement, then, would be to allow more control over this without
introducing any more friction.

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ahorak
I'd argue that the folder hierarchy that most email clients and organizational
processes use is fundamentally flawed as well.

Information doesn't exist in one place and shouldn't be confined to a single
folder. Tagging fixes this.

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adestefan
Honestly, I'm too lazy to tag thing. The search is the only thing I actually
enjoy in gmail.

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drumdance
I use a couple of GTD tags like "waiting for" and "someday", then use Gmail's
Multiple Inbox to keep them in peripheral view so I remember review them
periodically. Otherwise search is the way to go.

Gmail shortcut tip: when looking at a message, type "l" (lowercase "L"), which
will popup the labels picker, then type the first letter of the tag you want
to apply, then enter to apply it an "y" to archive.

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adamfeldman
Facebook groups, Asana, Fetchnotes, etc are great for cases where you can get
a whole team/group/family on one or a couple communication platforms. It's
much harder to get your friends to adopt a new tool, like the different pre-
iMessage BBM-like services, unless you can convince them they need it for a
specific task/project, or the tool has a 'cool' value-add (Voxer-walkie
talkie).

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abruzzi
The candle/light bulb analogy is the wrong analogy. The correct one is the
light socket/wall outlet analogy. When electricity was first run into homes,
it was all about light. So houses would have screw in bulb sockets installed.
As more useful electric devices became available, people screwed adapters into
the light sockets to run their devices. What they really needed were wall
outlets (the Edison plugs we have in the US today).

Wall outlets didn't kill the need for light sockets, they simply split off
certain functionality that wasn't best served by those sockets, because those
sockets were never designed for that purpose. Light bulbs killed the candle
(except emergency, devotional, and mood lighting) and I don't thing todo,
calendar, task management apps will kill email, but simply return it to it
original, more limited purpose.

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zwieback
Some good points but bad subject line. Email is the one non-broken constant
I've used continuously. I started out using email, gopher, archie, usenet.
Now, in the addition to "general web use" I'm still using email and, well, not
much else. I'm sure there are plenty of people making good use of notetaking
and to-do list apps but don't confuse it with the fundamental non-brokenness
of email.

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mahcuz
This again...

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chaselee
I would also say TODO lists are broken. Would love to hear your thoughts on
that.

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ricardojr
I love my paper based TODO lists. I kind of have OCD and sometimes I will even
write a TODO list for the things I need to do within the next hour. So for the
type of user like me, nothing beats the flexibility, accessibility, and
usability of a piece of paper. I don't think Fetchnotes should tackle TODO
list functionality, I believe its awesome powers lies within long-term note
taking.

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stonnyfrogs
Why email is broken: author doesn't know how to organize himself

What we can do to fix it: use author's commercial web site

...great, thanks

