An emailer reveals a number of assumptions:
Emails. The gamma can’t help but type novels. So, help me understand this about the hierarchy: I’ve always thought that most people ignore emails out of passive-aggressiveness, to control conversations, and because they’re cowards.
Clearly though, there’s a time to ignore people. However, I hate to do it, because I don’t want to be the above mentioned things. I’m fine being an asshole, but a coward… no.
How do you choose when and who to ignore? You obviously engage annoying people privately at length. Why?
I’ll leave it to the readers here to point out the obvious ironies here, but I will correct a misapprehension and point out that I do not engage annoying people privately at length, ever. Most of my private replies are very short and I very seldom respond to a second email. The only place I provide longer responses is here on the blog.
And for any even modestly public figure, the correct time to ignore emails is every single freaking day. You know those people who say that although they don’t respond to every email, they do read all of them? Rest assured, most of them don’t even do that.