This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Jared Richardson. Original Post: I Hate Email Feed Title: Jared's Weblog Feed URL: http://www.jaredrichardson.net/blog/index.rss Feed Description: Jared's weblog. The web site was created after the launch of the book "Ship It!" and discusses issues from Continuous Integration to web hosting providers. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Jared Richardson Latest Posts From Jared's Weblog

Really. I do. Somedays more than others. Today? A lot. :)

Email is a very poor medium for communication. It's just flat text after all. ASCII. But it's one of the main communication methods geeks use. Andy Hunt often says that the bandwidth on email is limited and I experience that more somedays than others.

So what's wrong with email?

You can't see the smile or the frown. Whether you're the sender or the reciever, you have no idea what the tone behind the message is. You're left to assume the tone. Sometimes this works quite well. Sometimes it doesn't. When the reader is having a bad day, even a well-composed email can be interpretted poorly.

You can't stop talking in the middle of an email. In a face-to-face conversation I can see you getting angry or annoyed and stop talking. With email, you've got the entire message already typed out and if something strikes your reader the wrong way you can't snatch it back again.

So the tip for the day is this. When you recieve an email and you're just sure the person just attacked you, don't reply.

If you have an overpowering need to reply, remove all names from the To: field... this avoids accidentally sending out the message with a wrong keystroke. Then type up your reply and save it in your Drafts folder. Don't send it.

Then do one of two things. The first and best option is wait until tomorrow. Give it time to cool off and for everyone to get a little perspective. Sleeping on it is a great idea.

Second, walk over. Call. Switch the conversation to a better, richer communication medium. Make a personal connection with the person involved and find out what was really going on.

Assume it was innocent and see what happens. It won't always be a case of misunderstood intentions, but I find it very often is... and it's a very nice surprise when that happens.

Have a comment? Send me mail! :)

Jared