Judge people by their pattern, not by their single worst day or their single best one.

A single day is a poor sample. Everybody has a worst one, where they were tired or frightened or badly behaved for reasons that had nothing to do with you, and everybody has a best one they could not repeat. The pattern is what you can actually plan around. It is also slower to read, which is why people prefer to decide from one incident.

Before writing somebody off, ask what they have done over six months rather than on Tuesday. Apply the same to the person who impressed you once. And remember that your own worst day is in somebody’s sampletoo.