[archview]

I have been developing my email habits to fit this. If my email is turning into a novel I make a point to bring the important information to the top as a TL;DR. If I forward an email chain longer then two emails I condense the email chain in my forwarded email so the reader sees and understands exactly what I need them to see.

I have found that if I forward a long email chain/write a novel of an email no one reads the message. The email was a waste of everyone's time. Many of my colleagues simply FW: a chain with a simple FYI in their message. My inbox receives >100 emails a day. I am not going to spend my time reading through a +15 email chain forwarded to me attempting to decipher what ten people are conversing on in that chain.

[yboris]

I keep remembering computational kindness idea from the marvelous book Algorithms to Live By:

Try not to pass the cognitive load to others. Make them do as little work as possible -- be computationally kind.

[AareyBaba]

I like that term 'computational kindness' and will use it within my team. I've noticed that for some engineers this is a natural thing to do - they summarize threads, highlight salient points and document information so other don't have to waste time. They rise within the organisation as tech leaders who communicate well. For others, this doesn't even occur to them as something worth doing.

[andai]

I started writing a tldr or brief summary above my posts / emails, and then I realized if I summarize properly I can just delete the original text.

[acheron]

"I wrote a long letter because I didn't have time to write a short one."

( https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/ )

[tempestn]

Now I'm curious what this comment originally looked like.