In September when the news media was recounting the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this gem about Warren Buffett surfaced: Bob Diamond, president of the British financial firm Barclays, had phoned Buffett about the possibility of the world’s second wealthiest man helping put together a private equity deal to rescue Lehman.

The call came on Sept. 13, a Saturday night, and Buffett was on his way out the door but he was intrigued enough to ask Diamond to call him back with the details. Diamond did do that and left a voice message on Buffett’s cellphone. But Buffett says he didn’t know how to retrieve messages so he didn’t get it. With no offer forthcoming, Lehman proceeded with its bankruptcy filing.

According to the story as told by Buffett himself, it wasn’t until 10 months later when he asked his daughter Susie about the symbol on the screen of his cellphone that he finally listened to the details from Diamond.

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After relating the story at a California conference for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, Buffett warned his audience, “Don’t try to get in touch with me by cellphone.”

Who knows whether Buffett would have really stepped in to try to help save Lehman? Barclays had backed off over other issues and the U.S. government refused to offer any help in the matter.

But in the midst of all the Wall Street financial know-it-alls and their state-of-the-art gimmicks to make a buck, it points to how out-of-touch new technology can make us. Yes, out-of-touch. The Web with instantaneous news, e-mail, and Twitter gets us stuff faster but is it any better? It sure wastes a lot of time.

Less than two decades ago most of us were still doing business without voice mail. When it was introduced, voice mail was supposed to be a time saver — and a cost saver. But remember how irritating it was to call someone and get their voice mail instead of being able to actually talk with them? But then we came to like voice mail for that very reason — it was relief not to have to talk with someone.

And then there are those who leave long-winded stories on voice mail. Who has time to listen to those? Get to the point. My problem is that I usually check voice messages just before I leave the office, which is most often in the evening. I just hope nobody calls and offers me a million bucks if I call them back in five minutes.

The thing with voice mail is that the burden has shifted from the person doing the calling to the person being called. Who says they even wanted to be called? Are they the rude ones when they don’t call you back?

You know the answer if you’re the person trying to reach Warren Buffett.

There’s some satisfaction in that.

Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.