There is a new sort of party being thrown by cool people in California. The idea is that you invite your friends and colleagues over, crack open a bottle of wine, blast out a groovy playlist, then settle down with your laptop to clean up your emails.
The concept of the “inbox zero party” comes from Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark) and is possibly the grimmest idea for a social gathering ever invented. Even the Tupperware party starts to look a glittering intellectual salon by comparison.
Ms Zuckerberg says unread emails weigh on her soul. In that case, the answer isn’t a party – it’s to tell her soul to get a grip. There are 2,347 unread messages in my two inboxes and my soul is coping fine. I glance at the emails as they come in, and depending on who they are from and what the subject line says, I open them. Otherwise I tend not to.