The Mandelbear's Musings

I see IM as more asynchronous than that; in IM, there’s an expectation that you aren’t necessarily getting someone’s entire timeslice, and a lot of my conversations occur in the little pauses when the computer is busy compiling or running a test. (It’s not a major imposition with IM because you can always read back up the log window to remind yourself of the thread of conversation.) Answering the phone or responding to someone walking up to your desk is very immediate; with IM, it doesn’t seem rude to take the time to finish your current thought before attending to their message.