03.19.03

Serious email filtering

Posted in Flotsam at 12:37 pm by

“I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an e-mail address … I’d used e-mail since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of e-mail is plenty for one lifetime.”

That’s Donald E. Knuth, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University, being interviewed (In SiliconValley.com, via OnlineBlog).

He goes on to reveal, uh, his strategy for dealing with email:

‘He only reads and responds to the most recent messages in his inbox, ignoring older messages as soon as he gets distracted by more pressing business.

“This way you can trick some small number of people into thinking you’re prompt,'’ Brin said.’

Terrific. I wish I thought I could get away with doing this.

Permalink