No matter how correct they believe themselves to be in their choice of off-the-cuff chit-chat topics, however, the moment they talk politics or religion, they brand themselves further in ways that have the potential to eventually affect the depth of the pool from which they draw water income-wise.
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But rapturous receptions for writers like Anthony Beevor, author of a tome on wartime Berlin, show that interest in real books at least matches the appetite for chit-chat.
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It seems almost bizarre to imagine William Wilberforce, the high-minded anti-slavery campaigner, indulging in friendly social chit-chat with the Prince Regent (a typical conversation with the prince, as recorded by an amazed Persian diplomat, encompassed such topics as the large size of his brother's penis, revealed as he relieved himself out of a carriage window).
So far, it's at tech-oriented conferences like this where people are most aware of the "backchannel, " or the real-time electronic chit-chat going on about presentations as they occur.
There is significant evidence that "work sampling, " the use of tests similar to the work being performed, is a better predictor of future performance than the usual job-interview chit-chat.
Without further chit-chat, here are the charts and graphics.
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The e-mails, in English and Arabic, contain "both evidence and chit chat, " the source said.
They would then chit-chat on their way to the meeting, agree on a strategy and present it to the stewards.
Everyone comes in because everyone knows how important it is to share ideas and have idle chit-chat as well as important conversations about the projects everyone on the team is working on.
But Mr Obama likes ideas more than chit-chat and they are, at least on the surface, ideological allies.
"No more trying to find time to call and chit-chat, " is how one poll respondent described the business appeal of texting over talking.
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The problem, of course, is what's lost when that chit-chat goes.
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