What is Slack, why is everybody using it, and will it destroy my work-life balance?

I love Slack, the mega-popular corporate-friendly chat client. I love it so much that I desperately want to delete it from my phone, because I can't help but check its messages every hour of every day. Yesterday night, I responded to a message at 3AM. Lol, I have no self-control and this is a cry for help! Anywho, Slack is still so new that it's possible you haven't heard of, let alone used, the service, which I describe to newcomers as something between text messaging, AOL chatrooms, and AIM — it's no less addicting than a combination of the three. I invited my buddy, colleague, and Slack expert Casey Newton to tell me more about the app, and more importantly, guide me onto a road of self-improvement. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices