Re: Question about the economics of information

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 28 May 2002, Sabri Oncu wrote:

> Not at all. We need to figure out a way to add emotions to these
> e-mails. The other day I responded to an e-mail I received from
> my wife. She was asking me to add a few lines to an e-mail she
> was sending to a common friend. In my response I made a joke that
> costed me two days of tension at home. Her perception was that I
> was insulting her in the presence(!) of a friend and this was a
> perception of someone who knows me since 1983.

Oy, do I know that the hard way.  But this is why smiley faces were
invented -- they indicate the presence of a joke the way a question mark
indicates the presence of a question.  By signalling tone of voice.  They
look dumb and make you feel obvious (since not signalling a joke is a
fundamental rule of good joke telling).  But it's much better than
sleeping in the doghouse.  And after you write a few billion of them they
begin to fade out and look like punctuation marks.  Maybe some day they'll
get stylized they way hieroglyphs became letters. ))

Michael