Neglected email
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Some charmingly reflective and sincere writing in the latest xkcd comic as Cueball types a reply to a long-neglected email correspondent:
Dear Kevin,
I'm sorry it's taken me two years to reply to your email. I've built up so much stress and anxiety around my email inbox; it's an unhealthy dynamic which is more psychological than technical. I've tried one magical solution after another, and as each one has failed, deep down I've grown more certain that the problem isn't email – it's me.Regardless, these are my issues, not yours; you're my friend, and I owe you the basic courtesy of a response. I apologize for my neglect, and I hope you haven't been too hurt by my failure to reply.
Anyway, I appreciate your invitation to join your professional network on LinkedIn, but I'm afraid I must decline…
The mouseover alt text says: "I would be honored, but I know I don't belong in your network. The person you invited was someone who had not yet inflicted this two-year ordeal upon you. I'm no longer that person."
It took me back to my multi-year battle to stop someone called Scott Reed bombarding me with requests to join his LinkedIn circle, detailed here. I never did find out who he was. Searching for clues, I found some indications that he may have been a retired Virginia respiratory therapist, horn player, birdwatcher, and churchgoer. But as I wrote on Lingua Franca, "I am a non-retired non-horn-playing non-birdwatching non-churchgoer with no background in respiratory therapy. I don’t see how we could be more incompatible, unless I take up nude skydiving."