John Claypool, in one of his sermons, tells a parable about a young man who was applying for a job. As a part of the application process, the young man had to take an aptitude test. He arrived at the appointed time, was given instructions about the test, and then was ushered into the testing room.

Immediately, though, the young man became enamored with the utensils at his disposal: he straightened the paper on the desk, sharpened his pencils and shined his chair. In fact, he became so engrossed in the material around him he never got around to taking the test! When time was up and the tests were collected, he had nothing to show for his efforts but a neat desk, finely sharpened pencils and an immaculate chair.

Needless to say, he didn't get the job. (1)

Nowadays people in business talk …