Gossip feels free. It’s paid for with the focus you needed for your own life.

Talking about other people is easy, mildly enjoyable, and carries a cost that never gets billed directly. The hours go into analyzing somebody else’s decisions, which produces nothing, while your own things sit untouched. It also trains you to be more interested in the scoreboard of other lives than in whatever you are building. The charge lands in attention rather than money.

Notice how much of a conversation this week is about people who are not in the room. You do not have to police anybody. Just see what happens when you change the subject once.