However, I've noticed this mentality does not lend itself well to maintaining good relationships with less serious people. How do you deal with these people, o

However, I've noticed this mentality does not lend itself well to maintaining good relationships with less serious people. How do you deal with these people, over the longer term? To extend your analogy, do you (we, to generalize) let them drown? I've "been nice" and "rescued" such people, only to have them bite me in the ass further down the road. It seems to be fundamentally contrary to my nature and instinctive reactions, but when I reflect upon these circumstances from a distance, the rational choice seems to be to let them die off (metaphorically speaking, in the work/business environment) -- the sooner, the better. Only, they are the better schmoozers. And in many environments I've been in, the schmoozing seems to win over competence. (There's always someone available to fix their mistakes.) For myself, I think -- for reasons I won't delve into here -- I've failed to pro-actively leave such environments. Back to your analogy: Perhaps I need to be on the class 4 and class 5 rapids, in part because the morons generally don't venture there. More challenge, yet -- perhaps counter-intuitively -- for this reason, less aggravation.