On People · 3 min read
The People Around You Are the Ceiling
You will become an average of the five faces you see most.
There is an old saying that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I used to think it was a cliché. Now I think it is the closest thing to a physical law that human life offers.
You will absorb their tempo. Their ambitions. Their tolerance for complaint. Their idea of what is normal. This happens without your permission, and mostly without your notice.
It is worth being deliberate. Not ruthless — nobody needs to be optimized out of your life — but deliberate. Spend more time with the people who make you kinder, braver, and more curious. Spend less with the ones who leave you smaller than they found you.
Written slowly. Read as slowly as you like.