“And if I discharge it, what happens to him?”

“That is not a question you are entitled to weigh,” she said, quite kindly.

“That is the point of the rule.

If you weigh it, then whichever way you decide, you’ve made it personal.”

I have thought about that sentence a great deal since and I think it is one of the more useful things anybody has said to me.

The report went to the board of directors of Vextor Dynamics at 4:02 p.m. on Friday, through Ifeoma’s office, addressed to the chair of the audit committee, copied to outside counsel, with a two-page cover letter that contained no adjectives.