Fine, I’ll admit that email is scheumorphic.

  • ‘Forward’
  • ‘CC’
  • ‘BCC’
  • ‘Signature’

All of these elements are carry-overs from, not only an archaic communication model, but an extremely bureaucratic one. One where high value is placed on traceability and formality. I suspect those two concepts by themselves result in higher communicatations costs, reduced message volume, and higher default priority.

Do we have a communication interface that reflects our current world? One where communication is casual, informal, cheap, and 99.9% of it is unwanted, unactionable, and otherwise unnecessary?

Email’s IMAP protocol could still support this, it’s the interface on the client side that requires the most significant updating.

And I don’t mean echoing the interoffice envelope.

Taking Stock

“So if you are in the position to have somebody else handle your flow while you tend to your stock: awesome. But that’s true for almost no one, and will (I think?) be true for even fewer over time, so you need to have your own plan for this stuff.” – Robin Sloan

A continuous stream can so quickly turns into background static. Just turn on any radio station or cable news station for proof. So much inane, meaningless, chatter between overly dramatic transitions to maintain attention and distract people from taking stock.

Infrequency has the benefit of being a novelty. Additionally, from what I see in this new publishing world – there’s an inverse relationship between frequency of publishing and positive impact on reputation.

I predict that if these real-time marketing channels (tumblr, twitter, facebook, et al) stick around another 5 years we’ll see a thriving industry of part-time, entry-level people dealing with it. Hell, I predict that these hired hands will handle most internet interactions for their clients. The role somewhere between personal assistant and PR agency. Especially those clients who feel the potential disruption of their own psychological flow is too significant to risk.

Perhaps, this is even something true fans will do out of their love. This final scenario may be the only saving grace for social media as we know it.

P.S. Proving my point, I was just pointed to Robin’s post this morning and it’s more than 3 years old. Significance continues to trump timeliness.

Outsides

Everything has a price.

At the last job where I was an employee – my immediate manager was always busy and happy to work long hours. Then, I observed that he didn’t really enjoy spending time with his family. Then and now, I see people commuting 45+ minutes each way, for decades, to live where they want to live. But they’re commuting, and spending more time in an office and on the road then in their dream house with their life partners. Any time I feel a pang of envy, I remind myself, I don’t know what price they’re paying for the thing I’m envious of, but it’s likely much higher than I’m comfortable with.

“Years later, I find out that the person, the one I modeled my creative habits after, was going through a bit of a cocaine addiction at the time.” – Ze Frank

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside. –
The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa.

“You are your own problem, and you always will be. Also worth noting: you’re the biggest problem you’ll ever have. Better figure out how to deal with yourself.” – Jason Zabel