leaving emails unanswered: classic or dud?

like when someone just sends you a long story with no direct request or call to action and you're supposed to read between the lines as to what to do with this information but you honestly have no idea what the lines even are and who has the time really?

nope. i'm ghosting you for now! not even giving you an "interesting, thanks for the information." just nada. get back to me when you decide to leverage the communication skills that i know you have.

classic

was this email from your mom?

classic. it’s not the 90s. you have my phone number

I have fucked up many things by not answering emails which I want to answer and which would be no trouble to answer, I will continue to do this I guess.

I've pretty much been sacked from multiple (freelance) jobs by not having emails responded to and I've tended to assume that this has generally been deliberate (easier to ignore someone than let them know they're no longer wanted) ... but having a tidy up of my emails and deleting thousands of them, I've read loads of things where I've thought "Should have replied to that ..."

the only email management skill i have begrudgingly started doing is starring things i'm not going to answer immediately and then checking my starred emails a few times a week.

a few timesonce a week