Choice of enemies

“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

I’ve used this quote as the footer to my posts on a particular forum for a while now. Much like explaining a joke, I dislike elaborating in areas that should be self-evident. Doing so limits independent thought and abridges that which is to me intended to expand the mind.

I was surprised to come across an explicit application of this idea in Getting Real from the poster child of agile software development, 37Signals. Try to think for yourself before clicking that link. You’ll be glad you did.