Just before a meeting.

One of the great things about working in an open-plan workspace is that you can't help but experience a diversity of work styles and approaches to problem-solving.

I am lucky, sitting amidst this swirl, and I have a lot of people try out their ideas on me.

The analytics woman gets all gushy when she finds a previously under-messaged group within our target. If we can reach these people, she tells me, we're talking to literally trillions of dollars of potential revenue.

The interaction design people are marking up a whiteboard in multiple colors. They've got a triple double-helix design--it's Timothy Leary meets Watson and Crick. Something way more complicated than I can fathom. It plots every intersection between the brand and the potential consumer.

The media people have made their GRPs do the limbo. How low can they go and still be effective.

The account people are running around like a Russian general at Borodino. They're trying to get it all together in deck form. All neat and logical and, of course, unassailable.

My portion was done on Thursday night and seems fairly buttoned up, or maybe it's just that I'm so grumpy everyone's afraid to argue with me.

It's kind of a beautiful thing all this. The preparation. The teamwork. The passion. The different people in their own ways looking to do something good.

No sarcasm. No irony. No kidding.

It's work, the curse of the drinking class. In the words of Oscar Wilde.