You’re allowed to like people who aren’t popular. Liking someone isn’t a social investment.

Friendship gets quietly converted into a positioning exercise in a place where everybody is ranked, so liking somebody starts to look like a bet on their standing. It is not an investment and it pays no dividend. The real questions are whether you enjoy their company and whether they are good to you, neither of which has anything to do with how the year has sorted people.

Sit with the person you actually like this week, in public, without managing how it looks. If somebody comments, that tells you about them.