A list of people worth talking to, and people to avoid

Picking a conversational partner is a bit like choosing a dance partner. True, you should be able to do something with everyone, but finding the right partners isn't easy. In the past, I have not been very good at telling good from bad, flexible from inflexible - but I am slowly compiling a sort of mental list. Here is what I have so far (and yes I know this is a bit rude):

People to avoid:

• Old farts: everybody reaches the end of their learning curve at some point, and succumbs to fossilization. Old farts can only see the world as it was. They are, essentially, a book: whilst they might have some good stories, you can’t have a conversation with them (note: you don't have to be old, to be an old fart).
• Bureaucrats: the vast majority of people are bureaucrats. A bureaucrat is someone who, as a core principle, does what is expected of them and follows the rules. We need such people but they don't make good conversational partners - they invariably end up inventing spurious justifications for arbitrary rules.
• Rationalisers (also 'Cartesian clones'): these are people trapped in the Cartesian paradigm. They will only ever be able to parrot the Cartesian (rationalist) position on things, having become so personally invested in this way of thinking that it is too painful to relinquish. They do not see the deep irony in this.
• Intellectual wannabees: people who read but don’t understand - i.e. people who read intellectual-sounding things, and say intellectual-sounding things, but are ultimately terribly shallow in their understanding.
• Sensitives: darling people who are so terribly sensitive to what people might think and feel, that they are forever trapped in the safe and conventional conversational spaces.

People probably worth conversing with:

• Others: people who are truly different – for example people who come from a different cultural background or who spend their time doing very different things.
• Dancers: people who defy gravity, by which I mean: people who don’t take themselves terribly seriously and are therefore flexible intellectually-speaking. Such people can move – can accept new positions, adapt and develop.
• Explorers: people motivated by the desire to discover, to encounter newness and who are not afraid to be somewhere on their own.
• Tinkerers: people experimenting with making things work, without worrying too much about why it works – the trial & error crew. The people who make something fly without being terribly worried about aerodynamics.
• Poets: people who, though they cannot clearly articulate the complexity they feel, are able to express it poetically.

 I'm going to try and be among the latter, as long as I can.