. . .

My point here is not that I\ufffdm God\ufffds gift to public speaking, but that what I do is PUBLIC SPEAKING, not public posturing or bustier ripping. I have nothing to sell. My goal is actual communication. How quaint.

But wait, there\ufffds more! I keep getting e-mail messages from people that I literally can\ufffdt understand. These people went to good schools and presumably know how to write in complete sentences, but instead they send me gibberish. This week, I called a practitioner of this gibberish, and he explained it was \ufffdconversational e-mailese.\ufffd

What?

Conversational e-mailese is a way to shout without speaking, to draw attention without informing. It is no way to get chicks. But for a PowerPoint, SMS, ICQ generation, I guess it will have to do. No wonder we\ufffdre making such bad decisions.

\ufffdHere, you see, it takes all the running you can do just to stay in one place,\ufffd said the Red Queen.

Or does it?

We are none of us that important, and if we think we are, then we are wrong. It doesn\ufffdt have to be this way. People often send me e-mail not expecting a reply, and certainly not expecting a reply actually from me. But what they get is not only me (I have no assistants but that is counterbalanced by my lack of a life), but LOTS of me -\ufffd words and words and words and words. People are amazed, but they shouldn\ufffdt be, because I am dedicated to sharing ideas, and the major way I learn is from you.

Which brings me to the most amazing event that happened to me this week. I called Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway, and after Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. And he answered his own phone.

I\ufffdm only glad I didn\ufffdt send him a stack.