Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED, recently expressed his views on a microblogging platform, X, where he took a jibe at "mediocre people." In his perspective, he observed a tendency among mediocre individuals to associate primarily with others of similar calibre, as the people with top calibre tend to avoid engaging with them.
In a post on X, he wrote, “Mediocre people often have a clear tell: you’ll often see them hanging out with other mediocre people, probably because the A+ folks avoid them.”
This statement from CRED’s boss created quite a stir online, resulting in several comments and over 1 million views on the post.
Netizens highlighted the nature of friendships, emphasising that they typically evolve from shared interests, values, and life experiences rather than being solely predicated on professional achievements. They contend that categorising individuals as "mediocre" solely based on their social circles fails to acknowledge the diverse dynamics contributing to meaningful connections.
“Doesn’t correlate with real life for me — people hang out more based on their value systems than anything else and within that, they might seek folks at their level ( A or D-) for a particular thing they are doing. I hope I don’t personally blanket label people at A+ or D- and explore everyone for what they are/bring. besides supposedly a+ people by some definition maybe total douchebags …often true …and are best avoided,” wrote one of the users.
Another user wrote, “You don’t know if someone is mediocre or A+ until you see their character during wartime. Everything else is just superficial judgement and utterly useless.”
“Birds of a feather flock together. The most driven, talented people congregate because they challenge each other to grow. Mediocrity loves company too - it's more comfortable to be around those who won't push you or highlight your shortcomings through their excellence,” added a third X user.