A man walks into a conversation with a statistic the way some people walk into a bar fight: not to learn anything, but to leave with a trophy. He doesn’t say “Hello.” He says, “Mississippi has higher GDP per capita than France and the UK.”
Pause for applause. Somewhere, a spreadsheet blushes.
The trouble is that GDP per capita is the kind of number that makes you feel informed while … Read the rest
The voice message is a beautiful invention. It combines the commitment of a phone call with the accountability of a napkin thrown into the sea. It is the technological equivalent of leaning into someone’s ear at a loud party and saying, “I have something important to tell you,” and then wandering off mid-sentence because a song came on. If you’re the sender, it feels efficient. If you’re the recipient, it … Read the rest
