Saw this post on TechCrunch this morning about MG Siegler (@parislemon) deciding to “quit” email by not responding to it for a month. The Office Space reference he makes is gold. Full text here of one of my favorite parts of that classic film:
Peter Gibbons: I uh, I don’t like my job, and, uh, I don’t think I’m gonna go anymore.
Joanna: You’re just not gonna go?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Joanna: Won’t you get fired?
Peter Gibbons: I don’t know, but I really don’t like it, and, uh, I’m not gonna go.
Joanna: So you’re gonna quit?
Peter Gibbons: Nuh-uh. Not really. Uh… I’m just gonna stop going.
Joanna: When did you decide all that?
Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.
Joanna: Oh, really? About an hour ago… so you’re gonna get another job?
Peter Gibbons: I don’t think I’d like another job.
Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and…
Peter Gibbons: You know, I’ve never really liked paying bills. I don’t think I’m gonna do that, either.
In the article, MG claims his life might be 30-50% better if he could eliminate email. He probably gets a lot more email than I do, so I understand the sentiment. But as a game consultant and Gmail fanatic, I pride myself on my elaborate system of filters and labels and a ruthless Unsubscribe habit that keeps my personal inbox to a manageable sub-50 conversations level at most times.
