The second you label someone, you stop actually looking at them.

A label is a stopping rule. Once somebody is the funny one, the lazy one, the try-hard, you have what you need to predict them and your attention moves on, which is efficient and leaves you with a person-shaped summary instead of a person. The worse part is that the summary cannot be contradicted, because you are no longer collecting.

Catch one label you are using and put it down for a week. Watch that person as though you had just met them and note anything that would not have fitted. It is a small experiment, and it returns somebody more complicated and more likeable than the word.