Email is a social activity. It's not the greatest social activity, but it is more social than programming. I find myself drawn to it partly for this reason. I

Email is a social activity. It's not the greatest social activity, but it is more social than programming. I find myself drawn to it partly for this reason. I don't know exactly what to do with that observation. But I know that the reason I check my email more than once a day is threefold: (1) to feel connected to other people, (2) to feel on top of things (the same urge that drives me to read the news), and (3) to stay out of trouble with work, in case there is some emergency on the website. If I had a job where all I had to do was check email, and answer them from what was already in my head, that might actually be fulfilling. Or if all I had to do was work on one programming project per week, that would also be great. But email and programming don't mix well.