“… There are those among us who believe that inboxes, like desks, should be kept neat and tidy at all times. And then there are those among us, like myself, who believe that the first group needs to back off. At least with desks, there’s a non-trivial risk of fire, and sometimes things slide around and get lost. (I’ll admit to having branded the occasional memo with Dilbert’s ‘brown ring of quality.’) But with email inboxes, as long as you have a decent ‘search’ function, I’m at a loss to explain why ritualistic purging is somehow a good thing. Purging an email inbox takes an astonishing amount of time, especially once you’re into the four or five figures …” (more)
[Inside Higher Ed, 29 April]