Be More Impolite

Impolite people are often too impolite. They live in a world inhabited by NPCs. They trample people.

Polite people are often too polite. They fear offending others; they fail to set reasonable boundaries. People trample them.

If you're still reading this essay, you probably care whether you're too polite/impolite. If you care about politeness, you're probably too polite. Impolite people don't think about this stuff.

I don't really believe that people are innately polite/impolite. It's all just behaviors (and the perception of those behaviors), but there's power in choosing to be a type of person.

In my experience, people recognize good-faith interactions. You can probably afford to be more blunt. You can do things. You can gather feedback. You can apologize. You can adapt.

Or not. You can assume that everybody is made of eggshells. You can maintain safe/shallow interactions with the billions of brilliant humans out there. You can live all alone in your tiny dollhouse because you're too afraid to leave footprints in the snow.

But I don't want to live there. I want my friends to tell me inconvenient truths. I want to share victory and grief. I want to live in the real world with all of you.

Always do exactly what you want, and do it kindly.

If you want unkindness, you should reconsider what it means to be "you". You're more than a tickle inside a skull inside a bag of meat. It's hard to pray for pain when you feel so deeply intertwangled with your universe.

It might feel impolite at first, but being yourself is uncommon courtesy.