Be careful who you listen to, because you might end up feeling like them

They say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and that applies to listening, too. Be careful who you listen to. Truth matters, and it's not the only thing that matters. It's not the same as wisdom.

To me, wisdom means taking the truth in the most enjoyably useful direction. It doesn't have to be both but it has to be one or the other.

The Internet's especially dangerous for this. You can find all kinds of people with valid observations who then interpret those observations in ways that make them miserable. They take the truth and use it to make themselves miserable. And then because they recognize it is true, they spread it around. The true part might be useful, but it always comes with their own miserable and at-best-useless interpretation of the truth. One has to be careful listening to them not to get the two confused. It is difficult to do this and it is rare to have the energy and awareness to even care to separate the observation and the interpretation.

Be careful who you listen to. You might end up feeling like them.