8/27/2026 07:00

Two Kinds of People

There are only 2 kinds of people: The ones who luxuriate in the richness of real life and those who proclaim there are only 2 kinds of people.

Male and female. Leaders and followers. Entrepreneurs and labor. Entrepreneurs and managers. Managers and laborers. Whites and coloreds. People who make money and people who flaunt money. Us and them. People with a sense of humor and dead people.

It doesn't matter. For every collection A there is the complement "not A"; for any ingroup there is the corresponding outgroup. But not every member of an outgroup shares any particular property. If among the grains our collection is all the varieties of wheat (einkorn, emmer, and so on) then "not wheat" includes everything else -- and rye is still not barley, quinoa, spelt, or rice.

Similarly among the politically aware there are those who agree with me and those who are wrong. Unfortunately those are not mutually exclusive categories; in actual reality people who agree with me can sometimes be wrong.

So too with leaders and followers. Some people are leaders because they rouse the passions of others to travel in a certain direction. Some people function as leaders because they travel where they want and somebody else arouses an excitement to travel in their footsteps. Some people follow slavishly and others follow creatively; some people follow movie reviewers in their choice of films but formulate their own opinions as to tax policy.

If I am seeking to employ someone to take charge of a non-profit organization I may do well to classify each applicant as either a "likely leader" or "unlikely to lead" as a way to simplify the decision. But I may also classify them as "rigorous in following the organization's mission" or "not sufficiently rigorous". And perhaps "clear communicators" and "less adept in communication" which would mean there may be 8 kinds of applicants.

In the actual reality game a play which artificially narrows the range of variation may prove useful as a tool for making a decision or for organizing your perspective. Over the longer view luxuriating in the richness of life is better attuned to the reality within which life is played out.


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