Posted by benbreen 4 days ago
Dear HN,
I hope this letter finds you well. I find myself, at present, in Dyer, Indiana.
What a glorious journey we had, conveyed in a wonderful horseless carriage. We made a drive of 5 miles in less than half an hours time! The wonders of Ford's machine continue to amaze me. What a wonderful time to be alive.
I look forward to your most gracious reply. Yours truly,
--Mike--
Sure most of it was me spiraling out of control but maybe there was some useful red flag I could have dug out of our conversations, even if it was my own.
Plus back then, kids would get very excited when a letter came for them and would look forward to getting the next one. email is way to instant.
Also far more thought when into writing letters than an email.
– Low audio quality means both participants have to repeat themselves a hundred times during a conversation. Or misunderstand what the other person said.
– Lack of visual connection makes it strange in comparison to talking to somebody in person.
– You will forget important details, with no way to recover them.
– Other people can listen in to the conversation.
– Most phone calls are unwanted, meaning that the phone ring has a negative response instinctively.
As for chat vs e-mail, I don't see any difference. They are in practice the exact same thing. Instant delivery, same method to write a reply, notifications on your device, etc.
But the point was the industry that I’m in runs on them because the teams you’re communicating with are in the field and supervising construction not in front of a computer.
These are young engineers who need to build experience and relationships with the site teams and text messages aren’t going to build them.
Although it isn't just the lack of mail that did that, it was also countries putting out huge numbers of stamps to milk the collectors for money.
A few years ago someone asked for my address (!) and then sent a wedding invitation, but more recently there's been the same formality applied to asking for my email address to send a wedding invitation.