977 Judging People

<p>Being nonjudgmental may be lauded in egalitarian circles but doing so in real-life isn't going to turn out best for your interests; if you don’t judge who you associate with, you’ll spend all your time cajoling, coddling, soothing, defending, and propping up other people at the expense of yourself. It’s better to only associate with people you admire & respect, so you’ll be admired & respected. But how good are you at judging people from what they type? Since nowadays most of the people you get to know are people you'll never meet in person, or even know what they really look like; old-time adages about not judging a book by its cover just don't apply; so how do you judge those people?</p> <p>As a strategy online, assume we usually judge people by your own discomforts: I don't like hearing about personal problems so I just Unfollow those people. There are also a lot of people who think I want to hear repetition a political party's talking points; I Unfriend those types. And then there are those that have a go at me personally; them I Block. I used to try and minimize my Blocking impulses, but as I've gotten older & wiser, I've given free-reign to my inner-Blocker; there's so many people online, that even if I was wrong in my judgment, there's plenty more where they came from; and all your Friends are judging you the same way.</p>