The Tyranny of Email

A good article about how email can interfere with work, especially when
instant notification is turned on.

All I want to add is that there's an old Kurt Vonnegut story called
Harrison Bergeron, about a future where mediocrity is enforced, and
government regulations require any exceptional individuals to be hobbled.
For instance the exceptionally graceful or strong are compelled to wear
calibrated weights on their arms and legs to put them on the same level as
everybody else; and the exceptionally smart are equipped with a device
that BLATs a noise in their ear at random intervals. This wipes out any
potential creative train of thought they might have been pursuing, and
keeps them on the prescribed standardized level of dullness.

I often think about that story in relation to email notification, cell
phones and MSN, and wonder if those kind of interruptions actually
measurably lower our effective IQ.