How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

A lot of self-help advice is formulated as what to do to succeed. But, most success is based on avoiding attrition.

People generally like those they’ve known for a while for no reason other than the fact that a neutral track record is a positive track record. The bar is in hell.

The first step to losing friends is to interrupt people and to consistently talk more than you listen. When you do this, you tell people that they aren’t important. If you want to shortcut a step, you can directly tell them and disagree with all their opinions, while making them feel stupid for having them.

A second step to alienating people is your hygiene. Make sure to shower infrequently, wear the same clothes all the time, and let your breath smell. This way it’s physically unpleasant to be in your presence. Doing this is essential because people, who want to appeal to others, dislike being around people who are similarly unappealing.

A final step to getting people against you is to avoid eye contact and signal discomfort in their presence. People dislike being disliked and as you send the message you dislike others, you in turn will also be disliked.

Hope this helps.