email bankruptcy

email bankruptcy n. choosing to delete, archive, or ignore a very large number of email messages without ever reading them, replying to each with a unique response, or otherwise acting individually on them. Editorial Note: Although Lawrence Lessig is often credited with coining this term, at best he can be said only to have popularized it, as shown by the earlier citations. Often, email bankruptcy includes sending a blanket announcement to the senders of all unread email explaining that they will never receive a personal, specific response. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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1 comment
  • That’s a brilliant idea…
    [select all]
    [delete]
    [auto-reply]: “Sorry, I will not be answering any more email this year. This applies retrospectively as well. Adam”

Further reading

A Cool Million (episode #1654)

So many books and so little time—it’s a challenge to choose what to read next! It helps to remember that so-called “reading mortality” is a fact of life—you’ll never get to them all, but you can curate your own to-read list...