I don't seem to have the massive problem with email that some people do.<p>Stuff arrives in, I deal with it, or get on with what I was doing.<p>If I want to arrange to meet a group of friends then multi-way email is by far the best way of doing it.<p>If I want to exchange documents at work, email does it perfectly well (until we get a CMS going).<p>It's not the only medium, but it's one that has many uses, and I'm not planning on quitting it any time soon.
His heart is in the right place, but I'm not so sure he needed to say "Stop. Sending. Email". Perhaps "Stop Automatically Checking Your Email" would be a better choice, since that's basically the recommendation at the end of the article.<p>At my place, we've got the following formula: email + Dropbox + blog + campfire + website system (based on Markdown) + damn phones.<p>I highly recommend Dropbox for sharing files, and the blog + campfire handles the "broadcasts". The website is for documentation. All of these things are free and easy to set up.<p>I could do less with the damn phones, actually. :) Most of the calls I get would be better asked by composing a good mail rather than "oh, hm, you know?"
I'm glad Atwood wrote a well thought out article, instead of the brief rehashes we had been seeing. I suspect the shorter articles are a result of StackOverflow DevDays coming up
I deal with email. I don't consider email a burden, but rather a blessing. I have more friends I correspond with regularly with email than I would have if I wrote postal letters.<p>I like the reminder that research has shown that variable schedules of reinforcement produce high persistence of response.<p><a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm" rel="nofollow">http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedu...</a><p>That's not intuitive, as Jeff points out, and it's a useful thing to know for hackers who provide Web services as part of a start-up business.
"Sometimes you get spam or mail you don't want, so stop using email completely."<p>No thanks. I learned to use email correctly, and it's a valuable tool that I am not going to replace with phone calls or twitter.