During my first role at <big company>, I believe I accidentally made an enemy of a couple of directors due to ill-timed interpersonal awkwardness and unwillingness to suck up. What can I say - I thought tech was about meritocracy and cutting the BS. I was laid off in the next round despite doing good work. I learned my lesson and now I’m (I think) well-liked.

When I first started working as a programmer in the early 90's, I was surrounded by older guys whose advice was always along the lines of "hoard information and knowledge, make yourself indispensable/unfireable". It seemed like silly advice to me at the time - surely as long as I was doing good work, I'd be recognized/rewarded, right?

Yeah, after a couple of decades in this meat grinder I realized they were right: the best survival skill is to just know a lot of stuff that nobody else knows.

I am bent the other way.

I am very vigilant of whether I am sucking up to anyone.

So in one of my first grad school conferences I see this stalwart professor making his way through different poster presentations. I don't think he encourages it, but people fawn upon him in subtle and not so subtle ways to gain recognition. After all he is Michael Jordan.

As I saw him approach, I told myself that I will not send any signals that could plausible be mistaken for obsequiousness.

Turns out he was not the professor I thought he was and with a hindsight of few decades, I was just rude to him ... just because of mistaken identity.

Not overly rude, but not nice either. Wayward ways of the youth.