The case for being nice

Demo Day recently got concluded and the torrent of people that I met forced me to think about being nice. There were some that I just wanted to speak more with, while others that I wanted to avoid.

I meet about a hundred people each week. Some are fleeting introductions and some are much more involved conversations. Either way, when you have a rate as high as that, often you tend not to remember each one of them. Consequentially, I have often been confronted with several embarrassing situations.

I am often approached by someone at events reminding me of our last meeting. Obviously I do not remember. Nevertheless, often I have a gut feel about the person. While I am not able to put a finger on the source of the feeling, I just have it. There are those you come across that you just feel uncomfortable around. You don't know what makes you feel that way, what conversation you had the last time which makes you feel as such, but you just do.

Why does this happen?

The gut is perhaps the most important part of your body. It supplies energy to your entire body. When your brain gets into a stressful situations and needs more energy, it sends signals to the gut. The gut remembers these situations and makes a mental note of it. When the same memory, situation, image is triggered, it tells your brain to get the hell out of there. The gut does not like it when the brain pulls out its veto power and asks for more energy. This is also the reason visiting places where you have had bad experience makes you uncomfortable.

The same thing happens with people. Certain faces just get associated with discomfort because you were unnecessarily arguing over the future of bitcoin. It caused sufficient mental stress to make the brain pull out the veto card. Now your gut will tell you to run each time you see them.

Therefore...

The world is a small place and you never know who you would have to go back to. It is not worth creating this mental picture. It causes the other person to be uncomfortable around you at a future date without reason.

Just be nice to people. Your views may differ and its best you convey them in the softest way possible and leave it alone. Its just not worth the image you create.