If you want me to boil it down to three words, “business before pleasure.” Accumulate some people you can count on to cover their own specialties and communicate with you accurately and precisely, and some other people who are fun to be around. Optimize those groups separately. If someone wants to straddle the line, never let them apply leverage from one mode to the other. Never forget which mode you’re currently operating in. Business gets priority in emergencies and strategic decisions, because survival, but there should be a balance overall: it’s “before,” not “instead of.”
I thank you for the information/advice, but with respect, I am going to ignore it entirely. I will continue to have a small circle of close friends who are both fun to be around, and don’t lie to me. I will continue to avoid closeness with people who lie to me; should any infiltrate my circle of friends (for reasons that I still can’t imagine), I will cut them off utterly as soon as I discover their true nature.
Well, ok. Let’s posit that this is a thing that happens. What are the countermeasures?
If you want me to boil it down to three words, “business before pleasure.” Accumulate some people you can count on to cover their own specialties and communicate with you accurately and precisely, and some other people who are fun to be around. Optimize those groups separately. If someone wants to straddle the line, never let them apply leverage from one mode to the other. Never forget which mode you’re currently operating in. Business gets priority in emergencies and strategic decisions, because survival, but there should be a balance overall: it’s “before,” not “instead of.”
Wow. That sounds like a terrible life.
I thank you for the information/advice, but with respect, I am going to ignore it entirely. I will continue to have a small circle of close friends who are both fun to be around, and don’t lie to me. I will continue to avoid closeness with people who lie to me; should any infiltrate my circle of friends (for reasons that I still can’t imagine), I will cut them off utterly as soon as I discover their true nature.
Personally, I find people who lie aren’t fun to be around.