Text is a very difficult medium in which to express oneself. I first noticed this with early e-mails. Especially dangerous if the message is terse. Centuries ag

Text is a very difficult medium in which to express oneself. I first noticed this with early e-mails. Especially dangerous if the message is terse. Centuries ago when the phrase "A little learning is a dangerous thing" became popular, writing required a pen and ink, and the (now esteemed) writers had a lot more time on their hands. When time pressure's on, perhaps, it's easy to leave out adjectives, qualifiers, and personal tales. Perhaps typing code into a text editor all day leads to a kind of economy that isn't appropriate for humans. (Not to even get into that geek cultural thing from college; I remember getting laughed at when I admitted to not knowing how to calculate pi to any number of places.) At least on a phone the timbre of our voices is a side-channel which communicates our intentions. Text lacks that, and hurried text? Danger, Will Robinson.