Earlier this week, the Pentagon released portions of its first formal cyber strategy and announced that it might respond to cyber attacks with traditional military force. As an unidentified U.S. military official told The Wall Street Journal, "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks." This is serious stuff.

Last week must have touched a nerve. My last column was about solution selling and how salespeople can benefit from a "listen first, speak second" model. The Spin Board may not have lit up, but my inbox certainly did, as I received a number of direct emails from people who either agreed with me, or thought I was a moron for wasting their time restating the obvious.