I had an inventor friend once.

He insisted that I speak to him on a phone of his own making. It was not a very good design. Oftentimes when we tried to converse, I confused the echo of my own voice for his. Other times I could hear a voice, but could not recognize it as my friend’s. Indeed, often it was not him; someone else was speaking on the line, saying things I felt certain my friend would never say. The phone could not be trusted so I asked him to call me on a more dependable line. We have not spoken since. The more time passes, the more I think we never did.

Photo by Can Ahtam on Unsplash