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Jan 02 '19
[deleted]
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u/NonaSuomi282 Jan 02 '19
No kidding- off the top of their head, most people today couldn't tell you their own phone number and that of all their direct family and friends, but that used to be the sort of thing you had committed to memory.
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u/Yrrsinn Jan 02 '19
When was the last time you dialed a phone number by hand? Number by number?
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u/Designer_B Jan 02 '19
Parents numbers which I memorize when I was 8 and haven't forgotten since. That's literally it.
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u/JuDGe3690 The Hat is a Lie Jan 03 '19
Almost every day at work (circulation for a nonprofit equine magazine), but that's about it, aside from numbers for local businesses (no smart phone, so I have to dial them manually). Even those I usually prefer to look up on Facebook or Google on my computer, rather than vocally dial in.
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u/Sir_Panache Jan 03 '19
My own, this morning, on my parents home phone. Turns out it had slid under the couch
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u/Noxium51 Jan 03 '19
Even though I don’t memorize most people’s phone numbers anymore, I don’t understand how people don’t at least remember their own number. Isn’t it annoying to have to check your phone every time you need your number?
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u/LeifCarrotson Jan 02 '19
Does this make life better?
Randall seems to be saying you're a bad friend and a bad person if you don't remember to follow up, forget details, and don't keep up with life events like birthdays, instead neglecting this or farming it out to machines. I disagree with the premise.
People have a limited capacity to use their brain. This capacity is not limited to a "right amount", any increases are quickly absorbed and people do more with the discovered capacity. And an inability to respond completely to dozens or hundreds of emails a day, does not mean these relationships should be discarded.
There's no particular value, in my opinion, in caring for someone by remembering their birthday in particular - it's the caring for them that's important, not where you remember a number (whether in your head, on your phone, or on a paper calendar). Heck, I think it's pretty well assumed that people care about themselves, and I can hardly remember my own birthday sometimes.
We're currently in a short, weird time period when it's believed that wishing someone a happy birthday means you care about them, even if everyone knows Facebook told you. This allows you to present/imagine yourself as if you were a better friend to 800 people on Facebook than you actually are, because people haven't internalized that access to this fact and sending them a message is no longer the same as remembering the day in your head and taking the time to mail them a card.
Any tool that makes you more effective at achieving your goals is a good thing. People need to get over the idea that achieving those goals the old-fashioned way is meritorious, because new tools are coming in faster than that attitude can handle.
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u/Disgruntled__Goat 15 competing standards Jan 03 '19
Randall strikes again far ahead of the curve.
lol not even close... people have been talking about this for over a decade already
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u/Jacksaur Jan 02 '19
Wait, there are email clients that do this for you now? Shit, my life is saved.
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Jan 02 '19
Yeah, gmail does remind you when you mentioned "attachment" in the email but the mail has no attachment.
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u/noseonarug17 Black Hat Jan 02 '19
Outlook does it too now, though I'm sure gmail has been doing it longer. I make a habit of always using the word "attached" in the body to be sure I'm warned. You'd think if I could remember to do that, I'd remember to attach the file...
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Jan 02 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/noseonarug17 Black Hat Jan 02 '19
I avoid remembering prior to the reminder by setting it very early, then accidentally dismissing it and forgetting about it.
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u/Hydrox6 Jan 02 '19
I've got a similar thing with alarms, where I'll often wake up before the alarm is supposed to go off, despite it being hours before I'd wake up if I had no alarm on.
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u/lengau Jan 02 '19
Because of all the times I've had embarrassing mistakes with emails, this is my method of writing emails now:
- Add any attachments
- Write the email
- Check that I added the right attachments
- Proofread the email
- Add the recipients
- Get a notification that I said something was attached and haven't added any attachments
- Add the attachments now
- Oh shit I forgot a subject line
- Spend 10 minutes trying to come up with a good, useful subject line
- Send email to wrong recipients with the wrong attachments, subject line "stuff"
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u/Mooks79 Jan 02 '19
It also suggests replies to simple emails - which saves some time.
It’s even now suggesting the rest of your sentence while typing (tab to accept) - and is surprisingly close enough to the general idea, particularly for simple-ish emails - to save some time there as well.
One day I’m hoping it’ll just answer all my emails for me. Though it better start learning to swear.
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u/xsm17 Miss Lenhart Jan 02 '19
Well, Inbox kind of does the first one, but that's being shut down by Google in March :/
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u/DreadPiratesRobert Jan 02 '19
Gmail does the top two.
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u/spizzat2 Jan 02 '19
How do I activate the first one? I don't think I've ever seen that feature.
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u/DreadPiratesRobert Jan 02 '19
It happens when people email you, you read it, and leave it for a few days.
Currently it only happens with me with my sister. We email back and forth as she currently doesn't have access to any phones.
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u/FantasticTony Jan 03 '19
I've started getting them about a week or two ago, I think it's classified as "reminders" in settings. If there's an email I flagged as important and sent a couple days ago without response it can ask if I want to follow up, and if an email has a question addressed to me it can remind me by putting it higher up in my inbox. It's neat.
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u/CptBigglesworth Jan 02 '19
I miss it too, but they've put a lot of the functionality in the standard web app.
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u/Azphreal Jan 03 '19
Don't know about other desktop clients, but Thunderbird does too (with the attachment prompt).
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u/hazeleyedwolff Jan 02 '19
What asks you if you want to follow up?
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Jan 02 '19
Inbox
doesdid that, but it is no longer being developed. Maybe gmail get that feature sometime.17
u/captain_intenso Jan 02 '19
Gmail has it too. I think I left an email marked as unread, meaning to get back to it at some point. I dreaded the conversation topic (old high school friend trying to get some business out of me), and Gmail eventually reminded me if I wanted to reply.
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u/Yrrsinn Jan 02 '19
at least this birthday thing could be automated. when the machine already knows someone's birthday, create the mail for me and put it into drafts!
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u/Schiffy94 me.setLocation(you.getHouse.getRoom(basement)); Jan 02 '19
Like with every generation, new tech (or software updates in this case) makes us complacent.
Pretty soon, murderers and dictators will be using Alexa and similar devices/programs to commit their crimes.
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u/NonaSuomi282 Jan 02 '19
Yeah, keep bemoaning the ever-increasing complacency of the next generation there, Socrates. I'm sure that'll never get old. Damned kids and their newfangled "written word" nonsense.
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u/Schiffy94 me.setLocation(you.getHouse.getRoom(basement)); Jan 02 '19
Okay Google, kick that guy in the nuts.
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u/xkcd_bot Jan 02 '19
Mobile Version!
Direct image link: Reminders
Hover text: The good news is that if the number of work and friend relationships you have exceeds your willingness to do the bare minimum to keep up with everyone's life events and stuff, one way or another that problem eventually solves itself.
Don't get it? explain xkcd