Laten we allereerst vaststellen dat de geschiedenis van academische gemeenschappen niet geschreven wordt door vice-decanen die een nieuwe procedure voor tentamenevaluatie met programmadirecteuren en examenadministratie afstemmen. Die geschiedenis wordt geschreven door precies datgene waarvan de bestuurders denken dat het er incompatibel mee is: protesten.
Willem Schinkel: Lof der platheid. Over campusprotest en academische gemeenschap
(also available in English)
“Can I get anyone anything?” is a standard get-out-of-room-quick card and can be played whenever uncomfortable circumstances, ranging from mild embarrassment to major impending doom, are fast approaching. Most cultures have a variation on the “can I get anyone anything,” and they are so obviously rhetorical that they barely merit a question mark.
Eoin Colfer: And Another Thing...
So if you're only used to one style, see if you can try out the other somewhere. Or at least pay attention and see whether you're talking to someone who follows the other norm. And don't assume that you know which norm is the "right" one; try it the "wrong" way and maybe you'll learn something.
Yet when men gather together at work, they rarely have meaningful conversations.
[...]
Men of all ages who want to talk about feelings usually learn not to go to other men.
bell hooks: The Will to Change
Long email signatures are the golden letter seals of the modern age.
He had had many conversations during his long life. Some were fascinating and stayed with him more than a century later. Others were less so. As a younger man he had tolerated those as part of the cost of doing business — a sort of tax that all people must pay in order to take part in civilized society. When he had turned one hundred, he had decided to stop paying that tax.
Neal Stephenson: Seveneves
On an arbitrary numerical scale of conversational oddness, ranging from one to ten, with ten being the oddest conversation I’ve ever had, and seven being the oddest conversation I have in a typical day, this rates no better than five.
Neal Stephenson: The System of the World