People aren’t ladders. They notice when you climb them.

Treating a relationship as a route to something else is far less invisible than it feels from the inside. People register the difference between interest in them and interest in what they can provide, usually before they could explain it. The moment the usefulness runs out, so does the contact, and everyone watching sees the pattern. It works once or twice and not after that.

Keep up with someone this week who can do nothing for you. Ask about their situation without steering back toward yours. Let some of your relationships have no purpose at all.