Archinect - News

Don't send that heated email

2019-10-14T17:45:00-04:00

Abraham Lincoln's Disappointment

In the summer of 1863 after three days of brutal warfare, the Battle of Gettysburg culminated with the retreat of Robert E. Lee's army, something, that at the time, President Lincoln was not happy about. While the battle was seen as a triumph for the Union Army, Lincoln saw an important missed opportunity. So much so, that he prepared a letter to General George Meade. In an excerpt from the letter, Lincoln writes:

"Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely."

He goes on:

"Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it."

Lincoln wasn't happy and he wanted to be sure his General knew about it.

The Snap Response in Architecture

We've all been in a situation where a coworker,...

Tips for handling email overload

2019-10-07T14:30:00-04:00

Any busy person understands the overwhelming sight of countless emails sitting in an inbox on a Monday morning. They come in all shapes and sizes: there are those that don't require a response, easy enough, on to the next; the sales ones asking us to check out a new glass product, annoying; there are the more stressful, maybe a note from a client, or even worse, a contractor with 25 RFIs.

The list goes on, but the common denominator remains the demand of our time and mental bandwidth, which can become cumbersome throughout our complex workdays. How can we manage this digital phenomenon? The skilled reader will have a well-oiled process, share your insights in the comments.

For everyone else, here are some tips:

Filter

In 10 Steps to Become an Email Ninja, Tim Ferriss advocates a focus on the essential and an elimination of the inessential, things like spam. He achieves this by using Gmail, which he believes has the best spam filter. Additionally, he limits email notifications from...

Tree-hugging in the modern age

2015-07-13T13:13:00-04:00

The city of Melbourne assigned trees email addresses so citizens could report problems. Instead, people wrote thousands of love letters to their favorite trees.

One tree letter excerpt reads: "My dearest Ulmus," the message began. “As I was leaving St. Mary’s College today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time. You’re such an attractive tree.”

Related Archinect news in the trees-are-friends genre: