Monday, July 28, 2008
I would like to congratulate my colleagues on reaching a new milestone in their attempt to justify our headcount by making each team member less productive.
Since last Wednesday afternoon, I have received 1200 emails, 11 of which contained information relevant to me. Most were automated alerts for things I don't deal with, improperly broad carbon copies and distribution lists for things I don't deal with, and compliance emails for things I don't deal with.
In case you were wondering, this translates to a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of -41.5 decibels. To put that in perspective, if my Outlook inbox were a radio station, it would be blasting almost pure static.
If left unfiltered, email would no longer be a viable information channel with a SNR that low. And by the way, this doesn't even count any externally generated spam.
Since last Wednesday afternoon, I have received 1200 emails, 11 of which contained information relevant to me. Most were automated alerts for things I don't deal with, improperly broad carbon copies and distribution lists for things I don't deal with, and compliance emails for things I don't deal with.
In case you were wondering, this translates to a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of -41.5 decibels. To put that in perspective, if my Outlook inbox were a radio station, it would be blasting almost pure static.
If left unfiltered, email would no longer be a viable information channel with a SNR that low. And by the way, this doesn't even count any externally generated spam.
