But more than that, people are evolved to deal with each other in person. Anyone who's ever had an email badly received knows that stripping the non-verbal cues off words can dramatically change how they're taken. (Americans working for British firms become particularly aware of this, because the British style is much more curt, which comes across as hostile or censorious to Americans used to appending emoticons, or their verbal equivalent, to everything.)

When you're transacting millions or billions of dollars of business, lost nuance can have catastrophic costs. Important cues such as body language don't come across on conference calls, or even teleconferences; they can only be apprehended face to face. That makes it important to have the folks doing the deals all be in the same place, or close enough to the same place (like Stamford and Greenwich hedge funds) that you can frequently meet your counterparts. [More]

Labels: culture, rural life