For those of you listening in the year 22 40, we're all dead.
I'm Angela Duckworth.
I'm Steven Dubner, and you're listening to.
No stupid questions today on the show.
How important are first impressions?
God, I thought that guy was a real jerk.
Steven, I know you've done a lot of interviews in your life.
I'm wondering, how quickly do you come to a first impression of someone?
How quickly do you think they're coming to an impression of you?
I can answer the second question quickly.
I don't know.
I think that I, like most of us, have a pathetically small amount of feedback about how others perceive us.
Upon a first meeting, someone I recently met said to me, and I really appreciate it, even though it was negative, they said, wow, you ask a lot of questions.
It was not meant to be a compliment, but it was useful feedback because I do ask a lot of questions and it's not always appropriate.
But I have to say, it's very rare, I think, that you actually get feedback about someone else's first impression of you.
As for your first question about me interviewing people, so in most cases where I interview someone, I and my crew, we've already tried to learn quite a lot about that person.
That's why we're interviewing them.
Right.
But my experience is not a very typical first impression.
I think what you're really getting at.