James Altucher’s four types of people.

James Altucher (hat tip The Browser) is trying to give very cute, but Asperger’s Syndrome afflicted Penelope Trunk advice on how to read and deal with people.  People with Asperger’s Syndrome have a very difficult time reading social cues and responding appropriately to people.  People who worry about where the world is going often trend toward this type of behavior.  Many of them probably fit in category 4 below, but I suspect a lot of them also fit in a self-inflicted version of category 2 that truncates their view of the world sufficiently to wear the wind up in 4.  But 4 is 4: regardless of how you get there.

The very short version of his list of types of people and how to react to them:

·         Category 1  :  Happy People

Response:  Be happy for them: do not be resentful.

·         Category 2:  People in Pain

Response:  Try and comfort them:  but set limits so set some limits as they can be a disguised 4.

·         Category 3:  Good People: Not happy but helpful.

Response:  Do not suspect their motivations  Be grateful that there are

these people.

·         Category 4:  The Crappy People:  LOL.   And here I will use a quote:

People who do you harm, no matter what you do, for no reason at all.  They never will get it. They will say and do things to you and they will never ever understand how evil they are.

And you will hate them.

 

Response: Crappy people are a huge waste of time, he notes that the best response is to completely ignore them and try not to even think of them. Do not give them advice: they will never use it and it will only entangle you further in their affairs.

Obviously there are a lot of ways you could slice-and-dice people. As a knowledge-content (versus experiential, opinion, etc.) hopefully my online persona would be that of a know-it-all number 3. Presumably, I would be better at the know-it-all part of it if I didn’t write so many contradictory posts.

Granted he is trying to make this a simple quick test for someone with real challenges, but I think there are two primary categories of crappy people. The aggressive crappy people, and the insular crappy people. I know a lot of insular crappy people: sometimes I am one myself. They are not particularly helpful, but if you don’t ask anything of them, they will not mess with you either. They are an energy drain when you are forced to deal with, but will not generally cause you too much stress. The aggressive types are the ones who cause an enormous amount of suffering and pain; far beyond their numbers. People write books about it.