digging old texts can have some unexpected effects. skimming through an old datamation edition from november 1974 brings up the burnout theory as an addendum to the list of productivity and management philosophies. (peter principle, inverse peter principle, ie)

the theory is as follows: after two years on a system a person reaches a productivity peak. he experiences "burnout". the only way to improve productivity further, assuming a promotion is not available, is a lateral move to a different system.

why is the theory important? the burnout theory attacks boredom, fights complacency, dispels data processing mysticism, and more importantly, increases department productivity by developing more experienced data processing professionals.

if people are complaining that dealing with e-mail does take too much of their working/lifetime, it might be good to recall what they hoped to achieve back in 1974:

... the electronic replacement of 80 percent of business mail | jacques vallée, the network revolution, 1982

how long did it take to send/receive a telegram? how long did it take to produce blueprints?

vallées book for sure is an interesting read, and the following line is still common today:

... one major new york publisher sent back the manuscript of this book with the comment: "people want to know what's new with computer technology. they don't want to know what could go wrong."

btw. he draws a distinction between "digital society" and "grapevine alternative".

digital society: massive amount of computer technology are used to control people by reducing them to statistics. In the digital society, computers are repressive tools and their use for private communication is discouraged. grapevine alternative: computers are used by people to build networks. and beyond the simple use of these networks for information we find people actually communiationg through them. this use of computer networks for group communication is a dynamic force that began in obscure research organizations ten years ago. [1970]