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Comment by realityfactchex | Hacker News Reader

All emails should be 2 lines only, is something I learned when I started working in an office. For example,

  WHAT YOU ARE SAYING

  WHAT YOU NEED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE (RESPONSE OR DECISION OR ACTION ETC)

My boss taught me this. Because people just don't read long emails. Simple as. Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails?

As time goes on, often I say (to myself) "forget that", and write all the detail that is needed anyway, even in email. But only for audiences that may care about the detail (or otherwise are safe to skip the email altogether).

But who uses email at work anymore, anyway, right? I guess some organizations.

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> Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails?

Always - as long as it makes proper use of paragraphs and doesn't have too many spelling/grammatical errors.

If I ever have to respond to an email asking clarification questions because they wanted to write a concise email, then my time is being wasted.

Most orgs still rely heavily on email, and most emails should be more than two lines to be useful. If it's only two lines, Slack it.

Disagree. Way too many modes of communication, which is endlessly irritating. If you want to send me a message at work, email is the common denominator.

Always super interesting to see how "powerful people" communicate.

big tech CEOs and major politicians use email almost as if it's an instant messenger: short, informal, to the point.

I guess it kinda bites them in the ass because the way I know this is via email leaks or subpoenas...

But it does mean that people can use whatever clients they like, and they can be across multiple organisations without weirdly expensive plans and administrators bridging instances or what have you.

> My boss taught me this.

And it shows. If you are not the boss, you can't just write something and expect the recipient to figure it out.

Right? Next tip for developers, always work in a private office, preferably a corner office, I learned this from my boss.

I prefer adding the detail; if it's going to turn into a phone call anyway I might as well have a script ready to go.

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