But what generally goes unmentioned is a more important distinction: that single-table conversations rarely happen in Britain. I first realised this when I started attending friends’ dinners in London a few years ago, when I was visiting from New York: when I tried to start a single conversation, I was told to stop because it was “too serious”.

There are multiple reasons for this, here is one;

In Britain, however, hustle is not so readily admired and ambition is sometimes derided as being pushy or showing off. Thus if you are brilliantly clever, you are admired for concealing the fact or cracking jokes about it at your own expense. Few Brits stand up in public and shout that they want to be public intellectuals; or not without a self-deprecating laugh.

The entire FT column is interesting, do note that Tett's background is in anthropology.