You used to have to put a little bit of effort into overhearing others’ confidential conversations. The real effort, now, is to keep strangers’ private discussions from being shouted in your ear.

I needed to get some writing done the other day and, away from the office, stopped at a Starbucks to get caffeinated while I scribbled. I had been at this particular coffee shop some time ago and found that it had since been renovated. Where once there was a row of small round tables, there was now a single long shared one. The dreaded “community table.”