How to Be Polite

Politeness and manners are something that I feel has always intrigued and eluded me.

I try to remember to say please and thank you, and I try to be nice to waitstaff. However, I eat like a barbarian and seem to be unaware of the people around me.

My wife is great at noticing and helping people around her. If our neighbors are unloading groceries from their car she's the sort of person who would ask if they needed any help. I probably wouldn't have even noticed what the neighbors were doing, I'd probably see them and wave, but that's it.

I don't notice if I'm standing in someone's way at the store and I talk way too loudly.

Today I read this interesting article titled "How to be polite" by Paul Ford on Medium.

Politeness buys you time. It leaves doors open. I've met so many people whom, if I had trusted my first impressions, I would never have wanted to meet again. And yet - many of them are now great friends. I have only very rarely touched their hair.

Paul Ford