Earlier this morning, I marked some 65,000 emails as read. Many of these are various kind of junk, but I am sure they contain some gems of opportunity and some important asks for help. They definitely include some instances where I reached out to someone and then never got back to their reply – for those: I am sorry! I have long ago given up trying to read, never mind reply to, every email as it is simply impossible to get any work done (or have any time to think) if I let my inbox dictate my...

I wrote a post a few years ago titled “Some Things I Have Learned About Email” which among other things advocates for double opt-in introductions. These have by now thankfully become fairly standard and when people don’t follow the protocol it now stands out. There is one more thing though that is worth emphasizing even though it should be obvious (but apparently is not): if you asked for an introduction and now someone makes that introduction for you over email, it is your job to send the ne...

A non trivial part of my time is spent reading and writing a lot of email. Here are some things that I have learned and that work for me. There are only two legitimate uses for bcc. First, explicitly moving someone to bcc who no longer needs to be part of the ongoing exchange. Second, to send email to a large group of people by putting all of them on bcc. I strongly recommend never using bcc any other way. If you want someone to know about an email you sent, send it and then forward it … Avoi...

Apologies to my regular blog readers but I have been battling a nasty cold. So instead of getting up in the morning and writing a blog post I have been sleeping in a bit longer. I probably should have taken a couple of days off when I first got this cold a couple of weeks ago but have been kind of swamped at work and have ignored my own advice. Lots going on that I would like to write about though in particular I have been intrigued by the debate around Hilary Clinton using her own email acco...

Belated Happy New Year everyone. Today I am traveling back to New York – weather and air traffic permitting – after a great family ski vacation in Colorado. As announced at the end of last year I took a break from (most) email and also largely from social media, other than occasionally looking at Twitter. The net result was that I had time to read several books, including the wonderful Age of Wonder (thanks to Ed Cooke who gave me a copy), Abundance, much delayed Guns, Germs and Steel, and an...

This seems to be the week for legal blog posts. After trying a slightly revised version of COICA with new branding (now: PROTECT IP), Senator Leahy has come out with a very sensible piece of legislation, the ECPA Amendments Act of 2011. As the name says, this is is an amendment to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 for which Senator Leahy was also the lead author. The proposed amendment brings the act into the 21st century by adding email, cell phone, private messages on social ...

I have sadly reached a point, where two things are happening with email despite my best efforts. First, I often write very short answers to emails. These answers could easily be perceived as rude even though that is not the intention. I remember that in the past it used to bug me a bit getting these really short replies back from people and now here I am doing it myself. The reason this happens is because I try to reply to certain emails right when I see them instead of letting them get pushe...

If you needed yet another reason to switch from operating your own MTA for transactional email to using a service provider, SendGrid recently introduced a killer feature: reply processing. No more need to send emails from “no-reply@thatsoundsrude.com." Instead, let people take actions simply by replying to emails. This is a feature that I have absolutely loved about disqus from day one: being able to reply to comments by replying to the email I get from disqus. Tons of others should do this. ...

Susan and I are pondering whether to continue the tradition of a family picture as a physical holiday card (ordered from Shutterfly) or sending emails instead. On one hand, emailed pictures seem kind of cheap. Regular email is what we all use for work every day and so has a very utilitarian connotation. Sending one is free, which in and of itself signals cheap. And it is somewhat difficult to make an HTML email with a picture look good (why is that?). On the other hand, snail mailed physical ...

Earlier this morning, I marked some 65,000 emails as read. Many of these are various kind of junk, but I am sure they contain some gems of opportunity and some important asks for help. They definitely include some instances where I reached out to someone and then never got back to their reply – for those: I am sorry! I have long ago given up trying to read, never mind reply to, every email as it is simply impossible to get any work done (or have any time to think) if I let my inbox dictate my...

I wrote a post a few years ago titled “Some Things I Have Learned About Email” which among other things advocates for double opt-in introductions. These have by now thankfully become fairly standard and when people don’t follow the protocol it now stands out. There is one more thing though that is worth emphasizing even though it should be obvious (but apparently is not): if you asked for an introduction and now someone makes that introduction for you over email, it is your job to send the ne...

A non trivial part of my time is spent reading and writing a lot of email. Here are some things that I have learned and that work for me. There are only two legitimate uses for bcc. First, explicitly moving someone to bcc who no longer needs to be part of the ongoing exchange. Second, to send email to a large group of people by putting all of them on bcc. I strongly recommend never using bcc any other way. If you want someone to know about an email you sent, send it and then forward it … Avoi...

Apologies to my regular blog readers but I have been battling a nasty cold. So instead of getting up in the morning and writing a blog post I have been sleeping in a bit longer. I probably should have taken a couple of days off when I first got this cold a couple of weeks ago but have been kind of swamped at work and have ignored my own advice. Lots going on that I would like to write about though in particular I have been intrigued by the debate around Hilary Clinton using her own email acco...

Belated Happy New Year everyone. Today I am traveling back to New York – weather and air traffic permitting – after a great family ski vacation in Colorado. As announced at the end of last year I took a break from (most) email and also largely from social media, other than occasionally looking at Twitter. The net result was that I had time to read several books, including the wonderful Age of Wonder (thanks to Ed Cooke who gave me a copy), Abundance, much delayed Guns, Germs and Steel, and an...

This seems to be the week for legal blog posts. After trying a slightly revised version of COICA with new branding (now: PROTECT IP), Senator Leahy has come out with a very sensible piece of legislation, the ECPA Amendments Act of 2011. As the name says, this is is an amendment to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 for which Senator Leahy was also the lead author. The proposed amendment brings the act into the 21st century by adding email, cell phone, private messages on social ...

I have sadly reached a point, where two things are happening with email despite my best efforts. First, I often write very short answers to emails. These answers could easily be perceived as rude even though that is not the intention. I remember that in the past it used to bug me a bit getting these really short replies back from people and now here I am doing it myself. The reason this happens is because I try to reply to certain emails right when I see them instead of letting them get pushe...

If you needed yet another reason to switch from operating your own MTA for transactional email to using a service provider, SendGrid recently introduced a killer feature: reply processing. No more need to send emails from “no-reply@thatsoundsrude.com." Instead, let people take actions simply by replying to emails. This is a feature that I have absolutely loved about disqus from day one: being able to reply to comments by replying to the email I get from disqus. Tons of others should do this. ...

Susan and I are pondering whether to continue the tradition of a family picture as a physical holiday card (ordered from Shutterfly) or sending emails instead. On one hand, emailed pictures seem kind of cheap. Regular email is what we all use for work every day and so has a very utilitarian connotation. Sending one is free, which in and of itself signals cheap. And it is somewhat difficult to make an HTML email with a picture look good (why is that?). On the other hand, snail mailed physical ...

This will most likely be my last blog post for the year. I am planning to take off a couple weeks not just from writing but also from spending pretty much any time online. During this time I look forward to reading a number of books that have piled up in my queue (both non-fiction and fiction – thanks for the many recommendations in comments here and on Twitter). I have taken breaks like this several times before and have always felt refreshed by them. In addition to the normal changes I will...

This will most likely be my last blog post for the year. I am planning to take off a couple weeks not just from writing but also from spending pretty much any time online. During this time I look forward to reading a number of books that have piled up in my queue (both non-fiction and fiction – thanks for the many recommendations in comments here and on Twitter). I have taken breaks like this several times before and have always felt refreshed by them. In addition to the normal changes I will...