Real-time sucks sometimes
Especially when you’re trying to get some work done and your being bombarded with chat windows and people hovering around your desk trying to get a word in. Email has to be one of the single most important methods of communication, however I feel it gets abused more often than not. A new favorite of mine is Twitter’s direct messaging. While a super short email can sometimes come off as less than polite or even flat out rude, a direct tweet is short and to the point by design. You still get the added benefit of taking your time to compose your thoughts, but you can get away with way less words.
