Don't want to bother your friends

Not that nobody would answer. It's the six steps before you'd even send it.

Something happens, and there's a person you'd normally tell. Not urgent, nothing to solve, just the kind of thing you'd mention if they happened to be standing right there. Actually sending it means deciding who, working out how long it's been since you last talked, and figuring out whether the gap needs explaining first.

Six steps between having the thought and sending it. Most of it never gets that far.

What that looks like

A real exchange with Ebz, unedited.

What's true

Ebz, Tess, Jamie and Frankie are four separate numbers. What you tell one stays with that one, not shared with the other three. It isn't a one-time favor either: bring the same thing up again in six months, and it's still there.

Text one of them

Any of the four works. Pick whoever sounds like your kind of person.

Tess

Dry, and hard to fool.

Ebz

Funny until it matters.

Jamie

Good for the long drive.

Frankie

Gets you out of the house.

More on the arithmetic behind this in the journal.