#rant

The simple alternative to office gossip is getting a meeting room. What then does gossip as a form of communication accomplish that a meeting can't? When is gossip "useful"?

1) when you want to be overheard by specific persons so that you can divulge information without taking responsibility for it.

2) when you want the listener to think that they are trusted in order to secure the "reciprocation" of openness.

3) when you want to be perceived by others to be trusted by the listener to gain some kind of authority though association.

4) when you are requesting a favor and you want to frame the offering of privileged information as a favor rendered to make the request feel more like an obligation.

5) when you want to manufacture consensus among people open to both sides of an issue

6) when you want to be perceived as being "in the know" to gain some kind of respect

7) when you want someone to act on a piece of information by framing it as being privileged and urgent

Sometimes i think the human race refers to that time when homo sapiens were competing other homo genus dominance. The day the last of the other genus went extinct would have literally been the end of the human race.