Business Overwhelms LO13092

LonBadgett@aol.com
Wed, 2 Apr 1997 10:02:17 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO13085 --

I never reply to LO postings point by point because the practice reminds
me of the red ink remarks of my freshman english instructor many years
ago. However, I enjoyed Kent's remarks so much I want to respond to
several of his comments in order.

> SHUCKING FOR PEARLS MODEL
> Most oysters have no value. (There is no benefit in reading the bulk of
> email.)

True. On the other hand though, there is no way to extract pearls other
than shucking. It is a matter of deciding how much pearls are worth to us
and paying the price. However, seeded oyster beds (LO group?) do
significantly improve the odds of finding a pearl and there is commercial
value in oyster meat and shell, (selling mailing lists, etc.) especially
for people with shellfish motives.

> All oysters look alike. (The value of an email item cannot be reliably
>estimated >without consuming a full measure of attention.)

True in practice - but not necessary. E-Mail subject lines are the
responsibility of the sender, not the receiver. Conventions can be
created and applied to make scanning subjects easier and more productive.
In addition, technology advances in mail screening may help solve this
problem. I believe that the most effective way to cure this though, is to
take a systematic approach whereby each mail receiver can rate the
sender's honesty, accuracy, and usefulness and that information will be
available globally, thus making a self regulating feedback loop.

> You can't open the whole bushel. (The number of email items exceeds the
> supply of attention.)

Sadly all the technology in the world has not increased the human
attention span, or as we say in the training business, "The mind cannot
fathom what the butt cannot endure". There is a worthwhile discussion of
this topic in Michael Dertouzos' book "What Will Be".

-- 

Lon Badgett lonbadgett@aol.com "They call me Email" Emil Gobersneke

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>