Imagine you met someone for the first time and introduced yourself, maybe asked the other person how their day was going. Without even saying so much as “good, and yours?” they launch into a speech about which type of pie they like best. You ask where they’re from, and they just answer by telling you about 3 different types of pie you should try. No matter what you ask or say, they respond exclusively with information about pie.
Even if they were very nice and even if you liked all the information about pie, you haven’t really gotten to know that person at all. You’ve seen the narrowest single dimension of them; not only a single topic, but only their carefully selected views on that one topic.
Based on just that, it would be very easy to form an extreme opinion about the person. If you like pie, maybe you think they’re amazing. If you hate pie, maybe you think they’re an insufferable bore. But there’s no real room for a middle ground, because you can’t take any kind of average, here.
People in real life are… well, real. People you meet any other way aren’t. Always remember that you don’t know someone at all until you’ve had a few organic conversations with them.
