1. Because Google solved the spam problem better than anyone else has 2. Because maintaining your own email server (which many on HN are perfectly capable of)

1. Because Google solved the spam problem better than anyone else has 2. Because maintaining your own email server (which many on HN are perfectly capable of) is a giant pain, especially when you have to deal with SpamAssassin, DKIM, and all of the other things that you need to do correctly to have your email work 3. Because I still have my data even if Google loses it — I have a backup from downloaded email through Sparrow as well as an entire backup directly from my Gmail through Backupify (https://www.backupify.com/ https://www.backupify.com/) 4. Because I like to outsource the tools and services that I need to people that are experts at it. It's the same reason that I use Beanstalk for Subversion instead of hosting my own server, use FreshBooks for invoicing clients instead of doing it myself, and send transactional email through Postmark. It's easier. Much easier. And they are all very good at what they do. Bottom line: So that I don't have to worry about email. It just works, which allows me to do exactly the same thing.