Category: email

A true pioneer has died: Ray Tomlinson passed away yesterday at the age of 74. In 1971, Tomlinson, then a programmer at R&D company Bolt Beranek and Newman, sent the first person-to-person message to a different computer: the first email. He also chose the at symbol—@—to be the crucial link between single users’ identities and their networks, transforming what had been an obscure sign used for accounting into one of the most recognizable features of the Internet Age. Of all of the well-deserved encomia from tech companies and journalists yesterday and today, my favorite bit comes from an article at… Continue reading Ray Tomlinson, email, and the essential art of screwing around

Two things that a social entrepreneuring trailblazer, a modern day Edison, a passionately productive COO, the world’s most powerful designer, and a billionaire business polymath all have in common: 1: They are titans of their respective fields. 2. They have almost certainly not heard of Timyo—yet! Of course, we aim to change that second one, but in the meantime, we thought it would be fun to share some quotes from these inspiring leaders and explain why exactly each of them would fall in love with Timyo, and hopefully why you will, too! 1. Elon Musk — Email’s #1 Fan “I… Continue reading Timyo’s 5 Biggest Fans (Who Don’t Know We Exist)

Now that we’ve launched Timyo, we are going to be moving away from some of the more abstract, philosophical questions we’ve explored here before and instead focus on how Timyo can help solve some of the problems that we’ve discussed about email. But first, I thought it would be good to talk about the only question, ultimately, that matters when talking about Timyo: Are you happy with email the way it is, or would you prefer to know at a glance what is being asked of you and when? If you like it the way it is: Congratulations! You’ve got email… Continue reading The Only Question that Matters About Email

2015 wrapped up very nicely for us at Timyo. We got our app in the app store just before the annual iTunes Connect “Holiday Shutdown” — a sort of dead zone where no new apps can be launched into the App Store around Christmas time — and we got a couple days to relax, enjoy our families, and mentally prepare for the next phase of our journey. So here we are, just getting 2016 under way and moving ahead with new and exciting challenges for our team and the Timyo app. Getting an app into the App Store is a… Continue reading 2016: the first leg of a very long journey (to fix email)

“I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I’m really good at email.” -Elon Musk Elon Musk made news again last week when SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. While this is technically awesome and looks really cool, for our purposes I’m more interested in the fact that it is one more incredible thing that Elon Musk has accomplished. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that, obviously, all of the amazing things that Mr. Musk has done so far can be traced back to one root cause—his well-established… Continue reading Elon Musk Loves Email. As a Manager, You Should Too.

The other day I was talking to a sixteen-year-old who I know (I’m pretty hip), and I don’t remember what we were talking about, but at one point I off-handedly said “you know, like after 9/11”. He looked at me blankly and said “I was two on 9/11.” Wow. This made me think about two things: The fact that I am really behind on doing any kind of long-term financial retirement planning, and All of the ways in which life is different for people 10 or 20 years younger than me. The main obvious difference  is our relationship to technology.… Continue reading Why Good Email is One More Thing That Millennials Will Take For Granted

I recently read a great article at Harvard Business Review called “Fixing Our Unhealthy Obsession with Work Email”. The author, productivity expert Maura Thomas, does a great job of highlighting some of the ways that ASAP work culture and the misuse of email add unnecessary stress to our lives. In the article, one thing in particular caught my eye: the introduction of the term “telepressure”, which was new to me, here defined as “An urge to quickly respond to emails, texts, and voicemails — regardless of whatever else is happening or whether one is even ‘at work.’” Sound familiar? Ms.… Continue reading Under (Tele)Pressure