As I've gotten older I've realized the stunning difference between people's public personas and the experience of actually knowing them. They are, at best, loo

As I've gotten older I've realized the stunning difference between people's public personas and the experience of actually knowing them. They are, at best, loosely correlated. As a rule most people, especially successful ones, are generally pleasant to interact with. They wouldn't be successful if they weren't. There are some notable exceptions of course but as a rule: don't believe what you read about people and assume they're probably pretty pleasant to be around or work with.