Email was invented as a tinkering byproduct, not a grand vision.

Evidence

Tomlinson, a classic tinkerer in the style of the early programmers, fooled around with a few ideas, with the help of two early computers in his office; even though right next to each other, they were connected through the early Internet. His main idea was to build some means by which his machines could send files to each other (a predecessor to what became known as the File Transfer Protocol). But as he tinkered, Tomlinson began to think not just about the machines but about the people using them. People could be awfully hard to reach by telephone, he mused. That’s when he had a clever idea: why not modify his file transfer program to send messages? There was no grand vision; when asked later why he came up with email, he answered, “Mostly because it seemed like a neat idea.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 642

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how transformative technologies often emerge from playful tinkering rather than deliberate design decisions.