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David Farber Says I Should Quit My Job
The Washington Post ran a story about email bankruptcy yesterday and featured my post declaring bankruptcy at the top of the story. The writer Mike Musgrove ended the story by noting that I did not return calls or emails requesting a comment. That's true, but it's not because I didn't see the emails and phone calls. Email and voice communications for me is a triage. For every call and email that I return/reply, there are probably two or three that I don't. I had to make a decision about whether talking to Mike and his colleagues Sabrina Valle and Richard Drezen was more important than all the other incoming calls and emails. I didn't particularly want to be associated with this story and so I decided not to get back to them. I got into the story anyway.
And as a result, I got to see a guy named David Farber, who runs an email list called Interesting People, say in the same piece that if I can't manage my email load, I should "get out of the technology field."
That pisses me off. I am a hypercommunicator. I send and receive hundreds of emails a day, I blog incessantly, I instant message, text message, and twitter all the time, I do calls on my office phone, cell phone, and home phone all day and night. I bet I communicate at 10x the rate that David does. It's exhausting frankly.
My problem isn't that I don't spend the time it takes to reply to every email. My problem is my incessant emailing, blogging, texting, twittering, etc allows me to touch thousands of people every day. And many/most of them write back. And I do my best. Which is not good enough. At least for David Farber.
Guess what. I am not quitting. My job. Or my hypercommunicating.
Comments (31) | Posted May 26, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
It pisses me off that people make judgments about you just because you chose not to communicate with them. I wanted to send an e-mail to Farber and see if he replies to me, he probable would send some sort of auto-generated reply, but I don't want to communicate with this guy either.
You will most likely get many comments on this post from the people that you choose to communicate with, saying you do a great job, and you do! I think you are on the leading edge of find new and better ways of managing your immense communication load; you are setting an example for the technology field. I don’t think people like Faber could do the job you do.
Posted by: Rod Wilson | May 26, 2007 7:32:51 AM
An email list????
Oh how 90's. If it doesn't run a RSS Enabled, twitter-engaged, blog, shouldn't he get out of the technology field?
Posted by: Knox | May 26, 2007 8:26:08 AM
You should have known that a VC using the powerful word "bankruptcy" was opening the door for attack. People can't wait to take hits on those who are more successful than themselves and you handed them a vulnerability on a tarnished silver platter.
Posted by: Dawn | May 26, 2007 9:02:46 AM
Better to be talked about than not.
Posted by: Eric Jackson | May 26, 2007 9:06:22 AM
In this bankruptcy of yours, I wonder what your contact laden blackberry is worth. You should auction it off for charity as a response to the article.
Probably worth more than Farber himself :)
I am in for $1,000
Posted by: hhoward lindzon | May 26, 2007 9:43:50 AM
howard,
i lost my bberry the other night
http://twitter.com/fredwilson/statuses/76084392
and had that exact same thought
thankfully it did not end up on eBay and I got it back by calling the phone until someone picked up
Posted by: fred wilson | May 26, 2007 9:48:28 AM
I imagine I don't get nearly the same inbox traffic as you and I still have a hard time keeping up -- and you nailed it, you have to make choices that invariably make some people question your ability as a communicator. Unfortunately for them, you have to hit the high notes and their article was not one of them.
As a guy that centers his day-to-day around an email list, it's understandable that he took it personally.
Posted by: Justin | May 26, 2007 10:05:44 AM
Responding to comments on your blog at 10 am on the Saturday of Memorial day weekend pretty much proves your point.
P.s. This comment was written on berry while in line at starbucks. Very matrix.
Posted by: Andy Swan | May 26, 2007 10:08:51 AM
I agree with Andy. Whats behind writing something like that. First of all, I saw your comment as more "tonque and cheek" as it were... I think perhaps there is a touch of envy going on, as well as feeling threatened. The whole journalism/publishing industry is being turned upside down with an uncertain future. you are on the cutting edge with access to shaping the future. If they were more aware, they should reach out to you to be an advisor.
Posted by: anonymous | May 26, 2007 10:24:56 AM
i currently have 214 emails pending my attention - yes, 214 - i attend to all urgent emails as best i can but a lot are 'fyi' status - but they still need my attention - it's a saturday, i am exhausted - they will have to wait.
it's why i firmly believe the demise of email as such is nigh - look at rss, twitter, IM, etc. it won't be long - email is as relevant as fax but it's the best we've got - for now. change is imminent.
anyway, re: my email backlog - should i get out of IT also?
how patronising - i fully understand your anger, fred.
ps, as a former colleague of mine said when asked why the delay in responding to emails sent to him - "there's no such thing as an urgent email - if it was urgent, you'd have called me" .... how true.
Posted by: carl rahn griffith | May 26, 2007 11:08:33 AM
u hurt poopy's feelings... awwwwww...
Posted by: phil | May 26, 2007 11:09:29 AM
I agree with Anonymous (above) - there is an old saying that if you throw a rock in a pack of dogs, the dog that "yelps" is the one that got hit. I would suggest that for the critics in the Post article, in your dual roles as a VC and as someone on the cutting edge of tech, you are perceived not only as a "gatekeeper to resources and power" but perhaps even more critically as an emergent trend amongst those with power i.e., a growing "delinking" from email. Since this phenomenon to "delink" is something that they really don't have the freedom or power to choose - from that perspective Fred, your declaration of email bankruptcy (read: Independence) serves to highlight the growing difficulty they face in accessing you and by extension whatever resources and power you represent - both real and imagined. Yes, a "yelp" indeed!
Posted by: John | May 26, 2007 12:07:15 PM
Hey, it's a real issue; the article mentions Don Knuth (but you can get him to call you back on the phone), but there are many others (e.g. Patrick Greussay -- the only way to reach _him_ is call him at home or send mail to one of his students). These guys threw in the mail towel in the late 1980s!
Dave Farber, on the other hand, hell, he not only receives but _generates_ a phenomenal amount of mail every day. _And_ has a life....I can't quite figure out how. He's not just "a guy" -- don't forget his Crocker was Dave's student when he wrote RFC822 (speaking of mail)....as were other crucial scientists like Postel.
So there are pretty serious folks on both sides....and you wouldn't have the internet we have without both. Why not just chill our and realise you worked out something that works great for you?
(Not to mention _everybody_ does this kind of triage....you're just willing to admit it publically).
Posted by: DV Henkel-Wallace | May 26, 2007 12:23:14 PM
Fred, your communication skills are second to none. How you successfully manage your thousands of online relationships...it boggles the mind.
Anyone who doesn't understand "email bankruptcy" ISN'T EMAILING VERY MUCH!
Posted by: Ethan Bauley | May 26, 2007 12:26:17 PM
Sounds like Fred identified a need for a new business! How can we simplify communications? Entrepreneurs out there--what do you say? Isn't it too cumbersome to blog, twitter,email, IM, & TM?
Posted by: Jill Stern | May 26, 2007 1:23:20 PM
Wow. that's stunningly stupid. We should all be judged for our email performance versus our work performance. The return on the capital you invest has nothing to do with it, I guess. Clearly, Fred, you are outclassed in the tech VC field because you won't be able to hang with the SMS speed of the new crop of Japanese hypercommunicators. Quit now while you're still able to type!
Posted by: scotty | May 26, 2007 1:38:05 PM
jill, hi - i've got some ideas - but, as they say, that's a different story ... ;-)
Posted by: carl rahn griffith | May 26, 2007 1:42:28 PM
I'm on the Interesting People list. It has about 15,000 subscribers. He is also a professor at University of Pennsylvania. Despite all this, any message I've ever sent to David, even though he doesn't know me, has received a response.
I'm sure that no one would be glad you didn't respond to their serious e-mail because you'd rather take the time to Twitter.
That being said, I don't see why anyone would call out another person and tell them to quit. It just doesn't make sense to me.
Posted by: Rick | May 26, 2007 2:29:14 PM
I think he got pissed off when he read your 'age posts'. Have you seen the guy? If Semel is like an old uncle to Zuckerberg, Farber is Adam. The Adam that ate the apple.
Posted by: tomo | May 26, 2007 4:00:13 PM
Hey Dave, if you're reading can you fix your email archive? no new posts since January. And yeah, maybe put in RSS support while you're at it.
Posted by: curmudgeonly troll | May 26, 2007 6:18:48 PM
It's worse than all that, Fred. Email is dying and we don't have a universal replacement yet. I'm helping pitch a seed deal attacking a $9B consumer marketing segment. The title of the Customer Pain slide is "Email used to be great."
Posted by: Scott Rafer | May 26, 2007 7:10:41 PM
Hi Fred,
that just shows that, while you are surely at the top of your game as a VC, you still need to learn how to manage your newfound "blog celebrity" status.
Ask any entertainent biz people: when a guy takes a shoot at you to increase his visibility, you don´t answer publicly, drawing attention to him. You simply ignore him :)
People are peering into your life more and more, because you allow them to do so, and there will always be folks that try to get attention by association with you. Guess that PR handling wasn´t required coursework at MIT... probably they didn´t expect techies to become stars. :)
Cheers,
Giordano
Posted by: Giordano | May 27, 2007 3:06:01 AM
Do you think it's really worthwhile to even respond to someone like that. The accusation is ridiculous. I don't think it's worth it to give that person the time of day.
Posted by: Ada Stein | May 27, 2007 3:21:06 AM
As a reader who hasn't commented very much, I feel I have to on this:
You are one of the most conscientious bloggers I read. You are very transparent and communicative in your blog. All your readers know how much you do and how much of yourself you put into everything --- in work life, family life, recreation life --- and you're providing a great model of how to balance it all.
It's clear to me that you don't waste of minute of time, and I find it inspiring. If someone thinks you should retire from all of this (ha!) because of a little email backlog, they really don't get it.
Posted by: KG | May 27, 2007 9:38:40 AM
I wish I had something witty to say, but I am too consumed with responding to all my spam emails. There sure are a lot of Nigerian royalty needing my attention...
Posted by: Tom Murphy | May 27, 2007 11:39:22 AM
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