Yes, my thoughts exactly. Gmail has a different philosophy of working with data (search instead of sort) and I've noticed more than once that some people refuse to make that mental switch.

Ever wondered why sorting is an option at all? Search requires you to know something explicit about what you're looking for (without a search term you have nothing).

How about sorting by subject, email size or whether an attachment exists or not? Search is great, but only brings you to the item you want. After that you might want to explore related items (such as a mail from x that contained attachment y you can't remember the name of).

Outlook has a different philosophy of working with data (sort instead of search) and I've noticed more than once that some people refuse to make that mental switch.

What's happening here is consistency - our nearly obsessive desire to be (and appear to be) consistent with what we have already done. Once we've made a choice, we encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Usura sung a great song once. It was called "Open your mind".

So you're saying that when you don't have a suitable search term, you can sort a really long list of messages in such a way that scrolling through the whole thing is an efficient use of your time? Or is that even when you do have a suitable search term?

I'm saying that others' reality isn't always like mine. That there are many ways to skin a cat. That every point has a counterpoint and when I get an email from someone called Diue Donne or something which I always misspell that it's easier to soft by sender, hit D and scroll for a bit.