People by nature tend to look forward for the next big thing and build solutions accordingly. However, I think it's also important to look back and ask key questions to gauge the usefulness of “old” technology because there are times when the past hinders the future. E-mail is a striking example.

E-mail started (depending on whom you ask) in 1961 with MIT's CTSS (Compatible Time Sharing Program) during a time when long-distance telephone calls were expensive and other techniques such as text chat were non-existent. This system laid the foundation for electronic text information exchange.

Over the next 50 years, e-mail went from a useful way to exchange information to little more than a distracting way to keep your to-do list. E-mail has caused quite a few problems along the way, including:

• Creating distance between people because it's just “easier” to e-mail (although less meaningful).
• Causing confusion (or worse) when readers misunderstand writers.
• Creating havoc in computer systems because of e-mail-based viruses.
• Creating wasted effort removing spam.
• Opening up an entirely new form of legal discovery with some pretty dire results (the examples are almost endless).

What's worse, those in my sphere of influence fail to move to more innovative solutions because e-mail is “good enough,” and in that way, it's a crutch that stifles real efficiency.