Ask HN: Can we do away with the typical Hi XX in emails?

Hello Sidwyn,

Why are you afraid that politeness will slow you down?

When you walk in to a store and you wish to place an order '1" wrench' is probably as compact as it gets. But 'I would like to have a 1" wrench please' is the normal form and even though it takes slightly longer typically you'll get a better response. You give the recipient a feeling of being appreciated, even though in the strict information theory sense there is nothing added to the conversation.

Those few words are the idiomatic way of asking for something and since email is similarly unconstrained in space (as opposed to say SMS text), has its roots in traditional letter writing, and is very easy to write people have settled on a form that is somewhat more compact that a regular (dead tree) letter but still long enough that it carries a sense of old-fashioned politeness. Typically this includes a salutation at the top and a signature at the bottom of some sort (usually a standard file).

Of course you are free to leave all of that stuff out, but if you write me 'give banana' without any introduction or explanation the only place where your 'instant' email is going to go is the trash bin. So all that flowery stuff actually increases the chances of the message making it through by using a slightly less compact form.

Greetings and much good luck with your quest for efficiency.

Your truly,

   Jacques Mattheij

The cost of writing 'Hello' in an email is very minimal, the cost of reading one of these greeting is also very minimal.

The cost of being perceived as unfriendly, too-business-like, and demanding is just so high. It's not worth the risk.

PS: I don't care either way, but I have heard multiple people comment on how they don't like doing business with person xyz because their emails are extremely cold and unfriendly. Because of this I have alway add a nice greeting and a friendly closing. The middle is all business/meat, but padding it with some friendly talk can really help.

In my experience, greetings are the easy part, whereas deciding how to close the email is the tough part. In my first correspondence with a contact, I usually end with a formal "thank you, (next line my name).

I notice most people don't respond back with the same formality, and so I mirror my structure based on theirs.

Does anyone have any tips on this or similar interactions?

I'd prefer to think of it as "Nothing I had to do today was more important than reaffirming that I care about our relationship."

Email isn't meant to be instant, even if it is faster than snailmail. Unlike a phone call, it's meant to be disconnected.

I find the use of a greeting helps me focus on the intended audience. But I don't care if other people use one.

Slow down, there pal.

They are meant to be transmitted instantly, as opposed to requiring a pony to transport a physical copy. Nothing in the requirements for email says that the content itself is of an "instant" variety.

I have written emails that took the better part of a day to compose.

I definitely use a salutation in my first email, but omit it in subsequent replies for the same thread.

instant in the sense that sending it doesn't take 3-5 business days. they're not necessarily meant to be tweets, although there's nothing wrong with using email for a system like that. they're not slowing anything down, in my opinion. they're to be used when necessary, just like most things. besides, after the initial email in a chain it seems that the trend is to drop that greeting anyways.

there are issues larger than writing "Greetings" in your email that you can solve. :P

Ys, lt's do this. Whil w'r at it, can w stop using th lttr 'e'? I'v nvr rally trustd thm, and it would vastly improv my lif if I didn't hav to s thm as oftn. Thank you all for your futur coopration on this mattr.