Phones suck
April 12, 2007
Phones suck because they are a synchronous method of communication. You have to call at the precise time when there is someone around to take the call, no earlier and no later. And during your synchronous exchange, if your correspondant has to initiate another phone call to see to your request, you are now blocked by indirection.
At that point, you lose all feedback. There is no telling how long you will remain attached to your voice transportation device, having your brain melted by both radio waves and the soul-meltingly dull wait music (or, in my case, a ‘beeep-beep’ every five seconds, just to let you know the line hasn’t just died).
There is a reason why email wasn’t designed with a “Sorry, your correspondant isn’t checking his email right now” error in mind. Asynchronous communication is so much easier on the nerves of all people involved, and requires less time wasted in blocking.
Now, if only I knew of a bank that lets you conduct business via (signed and encrypted) email… Right now I know only of email addresses for the various bank employees, and those addresses usually turn out to be black holes. Sigh.