More on (new) Yahoo! Mail...

As I am a big fan of convenience, I would like to share some tricks and tips that I commonly use on Yahoo! Mail. I am sure it will make your life way easier, and enhance your mail experience. In summary, they have a very desktop email kind of a look now...

- Shortcuts: The first thing first: Here is the list of all the shortcuts. I still could not find the shortcut for attaching files, but hopefully it will come soon... (or if you know that, please let me know)

- Sorting: (Its pretty obvious, but still) You can sort your mails in any folder by from, subject, date, size, attachment size, flagged status etc. This is pretty powerful, e.g., if you are trying to find a certain thing (but not sure as to use search), or read/see all the emails, from a particular person, then just click on any of the emails by that person, and then click on the "from" tab at the top. Emails will be sorted, and you will be at the right place too.

- Search: This is also a very desirable feature, if you know how to use it smartly. Look here for all the things that you wanted to know about search in Yahoo! Mail. E.g., now you can specify modifiers within your search terms, and it will search accordingly (e.g. subject:keyword, would search for keyword only in subject of emails). Also, there is a new tab on extreme right that comes with search results, with the help of which you can narrow down your results. Here is the general article about search...

In case you are wondering what would be an ultimate email client, google Mutt ...

p.s.: You can add events etc to your yahoo calendar automatically from within the emails. (plus don't forget to notice that your current calendar items are always shown at the bottom of page)...

Choice Overload (or The Paradox of Choice)

(Excerpt taken from this article ...)

“When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire too Much of a Good Thing?” Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 995-1006. (2000).

This paper explored the phenomena of “choice overload.” Here is what they did.

They created two displays of gourmet jams. One display had 24 jars. The other had 6. Each display invited people to try the jams and offered them a discount coupon to buy the jam. They alternated these displays in a grocery store and tracked how many people passed the displays, how many people stopped and sampled the jams, and how many subsequently used the offered coupon to buy the jam.

The results were surprising.

• 24 jar display: 60% of the people passing the display sampled the jam, 3% purchased jam.
• 6 jar display: 40% of the people passing the display sampled the jam, 30% purchased jam.

The larger display was better at getting people’s attention. But the number of choices overwhelmed them and they just walked away with out deciding to purchase a jam. In other words, if the goal is to attract consumers, less is more. Too much choice is demotivating. Admittedly, selecting a gourmet jam is insignificant. Maybe for more important issues, “choice overload” is not relevant? The authors of this paper, however, went on to consider more important choices such as 401K plans, and once again, a clear choice overload effect was found. Choice overload is real. When people are faced with too many choices, the natural tendency is to “not make a choice” and just walk away (probably in frustration).

--- My thoughts: I agree to the results of this experiment...
It's more interesting than it looks like here. Here is one of the Google TechTalks on the same topic (with lots of interesting real-world stories) from a well-reputed scientist in the field. (caution: it's a 1 hour video, but it's worth listening to)

kleptocrat in a Hermes scarf

An article in Daily Telegraph by Jemima Khan (ex-wife of Pakistani cricketer turned politician, Imran Khan). A very good and in-depth analysis of pakistan's current political scene, especially the Musharraf-Benazir deal and her being imposed on Pakistan by US and west...