Quote of the Day (Tony Schwartz, on E-Mail as ‘Cocaine for Compulsive Achievers’)

“E-mail’s intoxicating qualities are now well known: It’s convenient, efficient, simple, and informal, a way to stay connected to more people, a democratizing force in the workplace and less intrusive than the telephone. But as e-mail proliferates, its more pernicious effects are increasingly evident. Much as it facilitates the conduct of business, e-mail is threatening to overrun people’s lives. It’s no longer uncommon for executives – even those at middle levels – to receive 100 to 150 e-mails a day – a veritable torrent that floods ‘24-7,’ to use the macho shorthand of e-business. At a subtler level, e-mail celebrates transaction more than engagement, bite-size information rather than considered reflection, connection without commitment. In the name of better and speedier communication, e-mail can be rude, clipped, superficial, and depressingly desiccated. A boon when it comes to making lunch dates and answering yes-or-no questions, it is also an insistent source of distraction from more demanding work. E-mail has proved fiercely addictive—cocaine for compulsive achievers."— Tony Schwartz, “Going Postal,” New York Magazine, July 19, 1999

In recent years, it has fascinated me to come across articles on a trend in its childhood or even infancy. So it was again when I discovered this article by Tony Schwartz. 

I can still remember when someone first demonstrated it to me in the fall of 1993, and only a couple of years later my former company was using it. By the end of the decade, the changes in organizational behavior noted by Schwartz had become commonplace, including lack of separation between work and office and the slavery that even corporate executives feel to their e-mail in-box.

These days, the influence e-mail wields, the threat it posed, and the constantly improvised measures to safeguard us from have all taken on greater dimensions, with no end in sight—especially with the changes brought about by COVID-19.