Posts tagged with ‘pragmatic’
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Dinosaur Brains
From January 29, 2010 @ 4:04 pm
These lizard-like behaviors are inherent in the wiring, not in the higher-level cognitive thought processes. Thinking takes time; these actions and reactions work more quickly than that, and with less effort.
That’s yet another reason why email is so pernicious.
In the old days of letter writing, the time it took to write longhand and the built-in delay before sending (awaiting the postal carrier) both allowed the cooler neocortex to intervene and remind you that perhaps this wasn’t such a great idea.
“But Internet time short-circuits the neocortex and exposes our reptilian responses. It allows you to fully vent your initial visceral reaction, whether it’s in an email, a blog comment, or an IM. Although that fast, violent reaction might be a fine thing when faced with a predator in the jungle, it’s less helpful when trying to collaborate on a project with co-workers, users, or vendors (well, it might help with predatory vendors…).
I’m about a centimeter away from no longer communicating through e-mail.
