Never argue in email or txt messages.

Sure, you think you can make your point that way, clearly, without interruptions, going just one way. It feels something like the advantages of guerrilla warfare: get in quickly, deliver your carefully targeted blow, and then disappear.

But it doesn’t work. You don’t make that point. Instead, you inflame the argument with more incendiary textual sound and fury, without inflection to make it human. You make it worse.

Email works beautifully for many kinds of simple, practical communication. But it’s not personal and it doesn’t work for personal arguments.

Talk about it. Walk across the hall or get on the phone. You’ll be glad you did.