I’d always wondered why my colleague PC seemed to get through so much more at work than anyone else. When I sat beside him at his desk I discovered that it all came down to his furious typing speed. He blasted through e-mail faster than anyone else I’d ever known, never making a single mistake at the keyboard.

PC was thus freed to devote himself more fully to other more important tasks. Meanwhile the rest of us were left to struggle with our personal mountains of e-mail trivia.