Thinking that you alone know "the right thing", that you are surrounded by "idiots", that people "call you rude or disrespectful, simply because you don't smile

Thinking that you alone know "the right thing", that you are surrounded by "idiots", that people "call you rude or disrespectful, simply because you don't smile when you talk" and not because they (correctly) feel that you have no respect for them is simply hubris. Maybe this is the "dry humor" the author mentioned, but a) in my experience, people who hide behind the "it's just a joke" defense are rarely actually joking, and b) if your goal is to influence people then how your humor lands is in fact your problem. As they say, if you meet an asshole in the morning, you met at an asshole. If you meet assholes all day, you're the asshole. > It comes down to this: > You have to find a way to be the smart, positive, compassionate, mature, respectful, charming one. You have to do that even if everyone around you is acting like a complete idiot. > You have to achieve a fine balance between sugar coating and blunt honesty. Above all, you have to anticipate that all of your hard work won't achieve the results you want in the short term. It takes a long time. A lot of people won't listen at first. > You often have to trick people into doing the right thing. > It's exhausting. > It takes a lot out of you to be respectful to idiots all day long, especially when many of them go out of their way to do you harm. Despite the audacious tone of my writing (my dry humor is often mistaken for bitterness or anger), I try to remain calm and compassionate when dealing with people right in front of me. > And of course, a lot of people will call you rude or disrespectful, simply because you don't smile when you talk. > It's a lot to deal with.