Peeking at Personality

    Twenty strangers e-mailed me. Their messages arrived during the course of an hour. These people were responding to my advertisement on Craigslist. I was giving away an ailing lawn mower.
    I wondered which respondent I should contact.
    Most of their messages were taciturn, a sentence of two, expressing interest in the mower. Some people didn’t reveal even their first names.
    A few individuals revealed personality. For example, a woman who provided her name wrote: ‘My grass is high as an elephant’s eye.’
    I gave her the first shot at the mower.
    Exercising caution is sensible when communicating with strangers. But those concise replies turned me off.
    Revealing one’s personality, even just a hint, is advantageous in a competitive situation.