Your respect for and confidence in the host or hostess gives you the desire to make a connection with the person sitting to your left or your right, even though you don't know who they are. Everyone at the party has been invited for a just reason, and there is value in exploring the potential epiphanies that can come from engaging in conversation. There's nothing that human beings do much better than conversation. In fact, my definition of a good marriage is when you'd rather have dinner with your wife than with your wife and another couple. The best reason for companionship is the extraordinary conversation.
Marriage is the celebration of conversation.
When we design communication systems, we try to streamline them and take away some of the richness. We edit books so they don't sound like somebody talking. We do these things in the name of good taste and good style, in the name of seeming smart and seeming clear, but I am constantly on a quest for a Holy Grail that allows me, in real time, in print, and electronically, to engage in a wonderful conversation with another human being. That element of excitement that happens in the privacy of a conversation with another human being needs to come into the experience you have when you're sitting in front of a computer. If we can do that, you will be able to find your personal path.