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An async communication protocol already exists in Email. So what makes this different than email?
by bognition 10y ago
An async communication protocol already exists in Email. So what makes this different than email?
- nsomaru 10y agoMaybe it's like only being able to check your email 3 times a day
- bognition 10y agoYeah, totally. The barrage of constant notifications is the real problem. I used to keep my email open all the time. Over the last year i've disabled all email notification and check every hour or so.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoAfter reading "Deep Work" recently I did the same - I unsubscribed from all services, newsletters, Facebook pages, social apps, etc. that I don't really care about, and I decided to only check e-mail and social media a few times a day in pre-scheduled moments. Does wonders for my productivity and stress levels.
- smilespray 10y ago"It's not email."
- corndoge 10y agoThe focus is not async but the "three times a day" part.
- creshal 10y agoWhich email can do just fine, if you set up yours that way.
- Karunamon 10y agoAnd Dropbox can be replicated "just fine" with scripts and rsync.
- creshal 10y agoApples and oranges.
- Karunamon 10y agoNot really. Another instance of the principle that a purpose-built solution is often better than free ad-hoc scripts/nonstandard configuration that can do exactly the same thing. And besides, this isn't "the same thing". I know of no MUA that offers the ability to sync only specified threads in realtime.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago> Not really. Another instance of the principle that a purpose-built solution is often better than free ad-hoc scripts/nonstandard configuration that can do exactly the same thing. As long as your needs remain constant and perfectly aligned with the purpose of the app. Which happens exactly never. Flexible / configurable solutions have higher up-front costs but often turn out better overall - because they can be easily adapted as needs (and wants) change. INB4 someone says that users are dumb - no, they aren't. The dumb thing is actually the predominant trend in our industry of making everything purpose-built and simpler than possible, which makes people no longer expect themselves to spend even 5 seconds of learning to master a tool.
- Karunamon 10y ago...makes people no longer expect themselves to spend even 5 seconds of learning to master a tool. I, too, lament the state of user education in the computing world, but you can't change what people want by giving them an alternative that's technically superior, yet more difficult to set up. Again, I point to Dropbox. You can most of the way there with some simple scripts and coreutils, but for some reason, my gran wasn't using this until someone wrapped it up in a nice UI and abstracted the complexity away. For some reason, she uses the Gmail web client instead of Mutt, even though the latter is objectively faster and more productive. For some reason, she uses a feature phone instead of a smartphone, even though the latter is easy to use and can do so much more. There's a lesson here, often lost on more technical audiences, and I think it's this: Time and interest is limited, and developers should respect user's time and preference more than they do now.
- lhnz 10y agoEmail isn't delivered only three times a day.
- bognition 10y agosure, but you are in total control with how often you check your email.
- Trundle 10y agoI'm in control of what I put in my mouth too. Still don't buy the family size chocolate.
- mipmap04 10y agoPerhaps you can, but maybe a compulsive eater lacks the self control. I think this project is more for people who feel compelled to check their emails the second they receive them, but also find that doing so inhibits their productivity.
- Trundle 10y agoThe lack of self control was why I don't buy the family size. I was making the same point you are.
- wccrawford 10y agoI think they were saying they lack the self control to avoid buying the family size in the first place.
- snissn 10y agoBased on your logic, why would anyone ever open up a new restaurant?
- wepple 10y agoabsolutely; however I confess to not actually be able to successfully implement that control. I know of quite a few people who will actually exit their email app so no notifications can come in and they won't be tempted - suggesting there might be preexisting demand for this type of thing
- sethammons 10y agoWhile I might not "get it," I never got why you would limit a message to 160 characters either, and those guys seem to be doing ok.
- joopxiv 10y agoActually, they're struggling quite a bit.
- softawre 10y agoWho is the They here? Seems like the guys that made the platform and the top engineers working for them all got rich off of the idea.
- simonswords82 10y agoTrue - but that's all in the past now. Twitter's overall future is grim...They're either going to properly niche down and try not to be all things to all men, or die. Just my opinion.
- Senji 10y agoTwitter will never be strapped for cash, it's owned by a filthy rich billionaire.
- simonswords82 10y agoThere's got to come a time when even the filthiest rich billionaires say enough is enough, this project is never going to hit a satisfactory ROI.
- etjossem 10y agoTWLO was doing $60 a share last time I checked, up from $10. :)
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
- deckar01 10y agoIt's stays in your outbox until the receiver's preferred delivery time. You can see which messages haven't been sent and start to get a feel for other people's schedules.