SMART.FUNNY.NICE
When I meet a person, I often plot their personality into a mental Venn diagram that I call SMART.FUNNY.NICE. We can all agree that the best people are the ones who display all three of these virtues, to a high degree, with great consistency. We can also all agree that the worst people are the ones who display none of these three virtues, to a high degree, with great consistency (“The disposition on that guy is really terrible.” “Yes, and so much of it too.”)
But here’s the rub: what’s the second-worst? No, but you have to choose. It’s so hard! Sometimes, when I just can’t pick, I generate synonyms for all of the permutations and am able to arrive at a temporary verdict.
