There's a specific kind of judgment I used to make quickly, almost without noticing I was making it — sizing someone up in my professional network and quietly deciding they didn't have much going on. Not dramatically. Just a fast, private verdict: not capable, not much potential, nothing worth paying closer attention to. It usually happened with people I only knew at a surface level — a title, a role, the way they answered in a meeting, how confidently, or not, they carried t