Reportage: Orchestrating commerce

He is standing by a wall covered in print outs of different web pages, 12 columns wide, six, seven rows deep. No chair for him; instead his computer is placed upon three document boxes, and then a tray with a snarled lip, so he can stand and type. With his headphones on, he looks like a conductor of a laptop orchestra, all digital rhythms and spreadsheet symphonies. I assume it is these he is trying to whisper life into, or heart out of. It is a mountainous challenge, clearly, and one that cannot be solved by the sloth of simply sitting down. You lazy bones! How will you conquer the vistas of the market like that? Straighter spine! Deeper insight! Contemplation only when it helps you thrash everyone else! He holds his headphone microphone delicately in his left hand, like he's drinking a cup of tea out of the Queen's bone china on a Sunday afternoon, and begins to systematically cajole his unseen interlocutor.