How would Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Marx and Hemingway use email?

I didn't fully make up the title of this post, it came from Northwestern University, a research report for media. Their title is "How Would Einstein Use E-mail?". They believe that we are not as different from Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin after all, at least when it comes to patterns of correspondence! I had to take this piece of research serious because it is published in the prestigious Science Journal. And also the National Science Foundation supported the research.

I found their method very interesting and unusual because they examined extensive letter correspondence records of 16 famous writers, performers, politicians and scientists, including Einstein, Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Ernest Hemingway, and found that the 16 individuals sent letters randomly but in cycles. They said "No matter what their profession, all the letter writers behaved the same way. They adhered to a circadian cycle; they tended to write a number of letters at one sitting, which is more efficient; and when they wrote had more to do with chance and circumstances than a rational approach of writing the most important letter first."

I am unable to find more on this behavioural study however added this paper to my to read list as soon as it becomes available. Related to this topic, I noticed Mark Rhodes posted an interesting blog on Friday titled "Emails can be dangerous, make sure it doesn't happen to you". In the meantime, based on the thoughts from this report and Mark's post, I would like to understand what other email writing styles are available amongst us? For example, how often do you send email messages? How often do you check and respond your emails? How do you deal with myriad of spam messages if you don't have a spam filter? Do you use specific tones in your email? Do you keep it short and to the point or is it like a journal? Do you see e-mail the major communication tool? What are your overall thoughts about email in business and social life? Does email style has anything to do with the claims in the video cited in the future of communication:-)?

Regards,
Mehmet

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