[thelist] OT: How do you handle thelist?

[Jorah Lavin]

At 01:34 PM 04/21/01, you wrote:
>  I just
>wanted to ask how other handle thelist's masses of messages? I am
>sitting in front of 5000+

Filters.  I have found that I am really not likely to go back and read 
through 350+ messages, so I filter out anything I know I'm not really 
interested in right now... in my case, ASP, Flash, Netscape, site reviews, 
and many others go right to the circular file; not because I think they are 
"bad," but because I have to have some focus, or I'd be swamped.  I think 
of it this way...

1) there are many, many web tech discussion lists, and I can't monitor more 
than one or two
2) there are many, many topics on thelist, and I really can't read them 
all, and many don't really apply to me at all
3) since I know from the start that there are limits to my attention and 
time, why not "strike preemptively" and get a pruned version of thelist 
which is much more tightly aligned with my current interests?

<tip>

You can't do it all, so why not focus on the things you are interested in? 
Working with other professionals is a joy, so I'll leave the rest to others 
on my team and elsewhere, and have time for a life away from the cyclops.

</tip>