rewind: nothing good comes of email

Over a year ago I wrote that nothing good comes of email.

Riding in on Metra this morning I was reading about (insert topic of technical interest here). Following my own advice, I wrote a quick two line email asking my CTO what his thoughts were on the topic.

A few minutes ago he picked up the phone and called me - just me - to talk about it. It was a 30 second conversation that answered my questions and left me with an idea of where I should look next.

Here's your tautology of the day: A symptom of a bad corporate culture is bad communication, and a symptom of a good corporate culture is good communication.

Email is still evil. We can - and should - use it less, and be more efficient in how we use it. But in an environment of mutual trust and respect, email is less evil.

Here's my test - have you had to blind carbon copy (bcc:) someone on an email? If yes, how frequently have you done so?

I'll posit that if you use bcc: often, something's wrong that goes beyond email.