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Comment by atoav | Hacker News Reader

I've never really loved email, but hell it just works. What I like about email is that people don't interrupt me or try to chitchat with me, they just state the bussines of things and I can decide wether I want to react directly, in which folder to move or with which label to tag it (automatically or not), etc.

If somebody forgets something in a mail I could just write back or call. And if I really want to chat, matrix/irc or a signal group should be good.

For other things (by no means related to code only) repositories are good, or issue trackers like trac.

I never really liked slack although I tried. It doesn't really feels like it focuses the mind of a group and helps you move forward.

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I think the asynchronous nature of email makes it a superior communication medium. With slack and other messaging apps, we all end up writing short bursts of whatever is on the top of our head, without much thought or organization of the ideas. In contrast, with email, you can take some time to create a concise and well-organized message. I find email threads to generally be shorter than the comparable slack threads with each email adding more useful information.

>With slack and other messaging apps, we all end up writing short bursts of whatever is on the top of our head, without much thought or organization of the ideas. In contrast, with email, you can take some time to create a concise and well-organized message.

This hit close to home. When writing emails I sometimes find gaps in my own logic or alternate recommendations while writing the email, and am able to address those before sending.

With Lync, too often I end up "blurting" assumptions or guesswork that doesn't always necessarily end up being true. While blurting out ideas can be useful, depending who you're talking to, it can also make you look like an idiot.

With email people also don't leave you hanging with "hey...". Please don't send "hey" to me. Go straight to asking your question or favor.

I typically check my email once a day, first thing. Occasionally I will also check them if I'm bored around 4. If I have to write an email, I normally suppose that takes half an hour. I don't if emails use less words than slack threads, but I think I spend more time producing them. So "shorter" seems like the wrong measurement.

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