For those of you who've had the pleasure - or displeasure - of sitting in a boardroom where everything is impeccably polite and nothing obvious is ever said out loud, this may feel familiar.
I once made a fairly measured point at one of them. Nothing spicy. Nothing designed to impress. Just something I'd actually thought about.
There was a pause. Someone nodded. Someone else changed the subject.
A while later, two people separately leaned in and said: "That thing you said earlier - I quite liked that."
Which turns out to be exactly how this works.
A few months into writing publicly, I've noticed the same pattern. Plenty of people read. Plenty quietly like it, apparently. Very few feel the need to perform a reaction.
And that's entirely fine by me.
I'm not chasing agreement or applause. I'm here to ruffle a few feathers and soothe a few souls - sometimes at the same time.
If the noise drops as the thinking sharpens, that feels like a fair trade.
Besides, boardrooms taught me long ago that visible enthusiasm is often the least reliable signal in the room.