It seems clear that I'll have some opportunities to present notmuch to
various audiences at varying levels of formality. Since notmuch is
already a bigger project than me, I'd love to get some ideas from others
about what you think are the "big ideas" in notmuch.

So here are a few different phrasings of what's basically the same
question. And I'd love to hear some brief opinions on any one of these,
(or similar topics):

   What's your favorite thing about notmuch?

   What about notmuch makes it distinctive compared to other email
   programs?

   If someone were to implement a new email system from scratch, but
   capturing the "ideas" of notmuch, what would it have to have?

I'll put some of my own answers together in a reply as well.

And obviously, we should probably put a wiki page together to give a
good exposition on the "philosphy of notmuch" (once we can figure out
what that is).

-Carl