think tank forum

I glanced at my ~10,000 unread email count across all of my various inboxes and it reminded me of the post that initially inspired me to stop caring about inbox zero or spending any significant amount of time reading or managing email. I thought folks here might enjoy it.

https://warzel.substack.com/p/the-case-for-inbox-infinity

I've done various stuff like have a catch-all email domain so I can sign up for stuff with email addresses like ttf@myemaildomain.com, use dedicated email addresses for online shopping, etc., but simply ignoring email altogether has been the most relaxing option.

it kind of sucks what email's become (it's definitely no longer a medium I use to communicate on a personal level with anyone), but oh well. anyone have an unread count higher than 10k?

ugh that's written by charlie warzel, who i consider a huge turd. he wrote consistently-asinine pieces for the NY Times; luckily i haven't seen them publish his garbage lately

i keep my email weeded down so that it's still usable. but more and more places abuse it.

for example, i sometimes would buy blue bottle coffee. lately i was shopping and added some items to my cart. then i decided against buying it and left the website.

From: Blue Bottle <pleasereply@bluebottlecoffee.com>
Subject: 17ft Ceiling Espresso is in your cart

Blue Bottle Logo ( https://bluebottlecoffee.com/ )

Complete Your Checkout
We noticed you left some items in your cart.
Follow the link to make it official, and we’ll ship these out to
you in no time.
Your Cart

2xGkhxnpntcaonvebez1ys

17ft Ceiling EspressoWhole Bean, 12 oz Bag

$42

View My Cart
( https://bluebottlecoffee.com/cart?utm_campaig … ce=bluebit )


Keep in Touch
-------------

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions,
please email us: support@bluebottlecoffee.com

Facebook logo ( https://www.facebook.com/bluebottlecoffee )
Instagram logo ( https://www.instagram.com/bluebottle )
Twitter logo ( https://www.twitter.com/bluebottleroast )

© 2022 Blue Bottle Coffee Inc.,
All rights reserved.
Blue Bottle Coffee Inc. 476 9th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

i consider it my duty to respond to every one of these and generate a ticket and follow it through.

Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2022 18:10:43 -0500
To: support@bluebottlecoffee.com
Subject: Re: 17ft Ceiling Espresso is in your cart

Please unsubscribe me from these emails, or let me know if you cannot.

Thanks,
Lucas

## Nick replied, on Jul 25 @ 5:49am (PDT):

Hi Lucas,

Thanks for reaching out!

I just took a look at your account and it seems like you've
unsubscribed from all emails.

If you ever need to add emails back, you can always adjust your email
preferences [1] in your account.

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do.

Thank you!


Links:
------
[1] https://bluebottlecoffee.com/email_preferences

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:36:21 -0500
To: "Blue Bottle Coffee Customer Support" <support@bluebottlecoffee.com>
Subject: Re: 17ft Ceiling Espresso is in your cart

Hi Nick,

I still received this "Complete Your Checkout" email, though. How can I =
ensure I do not receive these in the future?

Best,
Lucas

## Nick replied, on Jul 26 @ 12:22pm (PDT):

Hi Lucas,

I apologize! I thought that would work.

A couple things, I'm working on to see that you don't receive those
transactional emails:

First, I went in and removed the item from your cart so you shouldn't
receive those emails for that particular item.

Second, I reached out to our transactional email team to see if
removing people from transactional email lists is possible and provide
the feedback that you do not want to receive them.

I'll let you know what I hear back but wanted to at least update you
with what I've been working on.

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do in the interim.

Thank you,

Nick
Blue Bottle Coffee [1] || FAQs [2]


Links:
------
[1] http://bluebottlecoffee.com
[2] https://bluebottlecoffee.com/help/

Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:49:38 -0500
To: "Blue Bottle Coffee Customer Support" <support@bluebottlecoffee.com>
Subject: Re: 17ft Ceiling Espresso is in your cart

Hi Nick,

Any update on this? Once I have the ability to permanently opt-out of th=
ese emails, I will begin adding items to my cart again.

Best,
Lucas

I lied, though. I probably won't ever buy from Blue Bottle again. Verve Coffee has a better deal on free shipping, better prices on coffee, and is not substantially owned by Nestle.

what about having a single email address for personalized, non-commerce purposes, then a second email for everything else?

that's what i'm leaning toward.the personal email would be identified as such (like with my personal name in the email address). the other email address (devoid of any personal identification) would be used for all accounts, business transactions, lists, and with anyone who cannot be trusted to not add it to a list or automated systems.

then at least you get to keep personal communications separate from everything else. those communications deserve a sanctity to me. i still write many letters by hand, but it doesn't always make the most sense, so some people i will email instead.

oh, the originally-linked post on charlie warzel's blog was written by a guest writer. so i will consider reading it. however, notice that charlie warzel did not use a clear by-line for the actual author. i only realized this by reading his lengthy prelude:

Welcome to Galaxy Brain — a newsletter from Charlie Warzel about technology and culture. You can read what this is all about here. If you like what you see, consider forwarding it to a friend or two. You can also click the button below to subscribe. And if you’ve been reading, consider going to the paid version.

One thing I plan to do on occasion is turn this newsletter over to people whose writing or ideas I love (or to voices you may be unfamiliar with). My first guest blogger is the great Spencer Hall. I asked Spencer for a short bio and he provided the following: “I write about sports and people who crush houses with trees.”

If that’s not enough for you, here’s my attempt: Spencer is a genius and one of my favorite word writers on the internet. He’s a master of the blog form and started the delightful and beloved college football site, Every Day Should Be Saturday, which moved to SB Nation in 2010. More recently, helped launch Banner Society, a separate college football site for SB Nation. He's a co-host on the Shutdown Fullcast podcast. He writes westerns about college football. He’s been on Sportscenter a bunch. He’s very good at Twitter. He’s one of the most creative and original voices out there. I’m thrilled to have him write a 100% smart and correct manifesto about email.

this is further evidence of warzel being a giant turd. he wrote for the NY Times. he knows damn well what a by-line is. when i read this italicized prelude, i was required to infer that the subsequent text was actually written by this guest writer, spencer hall. the prelude is vague:

"i plan to publish guest writers on this blog...
"my first guest will be this guy spencer...
"he gave me this bio...
"here's my bio of him...
"i'm thrilled to have him write about subject X"

and then there is an essay about subject X, but without a by-line.

i was forced to infer that this essay was what hall wrote. warzel could have added "his essay follows." to the end of his prelude.

it seems to me that warzel just loves to read his own writing. i bet he would love to host his own podcast; then he could easily listen to himself on spotify whenever ED strikes.

i agree with a few of his points. here's one with which i strongly disagree:

But at this point in history, a personal email inbox is essentially an ad server that is occasionally interrupted by chippy emails from older relatives too techphobic to use Facebook.

Nope.

1. I don't want to store anything important in the cloud, unless it is with a company who I pay to maintain my data and privacy without exploiting it (e.g., Fastmail and perhaps Apple iCloud).

2. I will hopefully never use Facebook on a regular basis. It is what's wrong with the direction of the world.

apple has a solution if you'd like to put all your trust in them: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210425

:/

That would be a lot of data going through their servers.

I generally trust Apple because most of their money comes from hardware. If they lose people's trust with software and cloud services, then their hardware business will be hurt. Also I think they have a good track-record (although I could easily be wrong).

> what about having a single email address for personalized, non-commerce purposes, then a second email for everything else?

this is kind of where I've ended up. I have a couple of personal email addresses, one which I use more than any of the others. and a separate, dedicated email just for online shopping/commerce, which gets an absurd amount of email.

I agree with what you said about the prelude/byline. I actually didn't realize the post wasn't by Warzel.

Fastmail and 1Password have a private email thing as well. I use both of these things but haven't tried it. https://www.fastmail.com/1password/

And I just learned about this one from DuckDuckGo a few days ago, which seems neat. I created a @duck.com address but haven't used it or the random/anonymous email feature yet. https://duckduckgo.com/email/

current status of all mailboxes: 16,421 unread emails 8-)

btw, nick from blue bottle responded again:

## Nick replied, on Aug 9 @ 5:56am (PDT):

Hi Lucas,

Thanks for checking back in on this!

I heard back from our transactional email team and they explained that
at this point there is no way to opt out of transactional emails like
the "Complete Your Checkout" email. They did say that they will be
looking into better ways to send transactional info and reduce the
amount of emails sent without the option to opt out.

I know this doesn't resolve your issue right now but it sounds like we
should have a resolution in the near future.

Please let me know if there is anything else we can do.

And, thanks for the feedback!


Nick
Blue Bottle Coffee [1] || FAQs [2]


Links:
------
[1] http://bluebottlecoffee.com
[2] https://bluebottlecoffee.com/help/

is there a way to rain hellfire on these corporate abuses of my poor, solemn inbox?

maybe a meme of charlie warzel and spencer hall stroking a blue bottle, saying "no matter, infinite inbox is the future"

just watch nyt wirecutter come out with an article on "the best fountain pens"

under the heading "Why You Should Trust Us" they might write:

We spent three hours researching currently-available brands of fountain pens. We also spoke personally with numerous fountain pen stores. (Yes, stores actually specialize in fountain pens!) Finally, we spent twenty hours learning how to use the fountain pens (and subsequently using them).

god they're a bunch of idiots. but i'm so glad they overlooked my beloved lojel luggage brand recently when writing about what they consider the best luggage. i'm glad because it was already sold-out frequently, and i might want to buy one. however they did miss one of the best available pieces. perhaps lojel didn't offer a good referral commission. instead they recommended hard-case luggage with zipper enclosures. (not secure at all! but cheap to produce the garbage!) and in their carry-on article, they only review the lojel hard-case with zipper expansion and complain about the zipper expansion--they should have reviewed lojel's classic and sturdy hard-case without zippers. jfc. idiots. but like i said, better for me.

i have a big update that i need to punch up

my big update is that I'm at 21,425 unread emails

ttf eating emojis strikes again. I put a surfing person emoji and also said that I'd like to read your update, lucas.