When I first met Nina, I disliked her at once. She was wearing skintight pedal pushers, aflashy, floppy top, and sneakers with no socks - bizarrely inappropriate even at our very informalcompany. Soon, Nina was doggedly pumping me for information about the new department I wasrunning, where she hoped to get a permanent job. Not a chance, I thought. Not if I have anythingto say about it .

However, I didn ’t Within a few days she was ‘trying out ’ ，for me. I gave her a moderatelydifficult, uninteresting, and unimportant project that I didn ’t need for months. It took that longfor her successor to put in order the mess she had made out of ft Although I couldn’t haveprediction exactly what Nina would do ，in three minutes I had assessed her as someone whocould not be relied on to get a job done. 

We all make quick judgments about strangers. Within seconds after we meet someone, Wetake in a host of details and draw rather large conclusions from them. We may decide in a minutewhether it is someone ’s nature to be warm or cold, friendly or hostile, anxious or calm, happy ortroubled. Unconsciously, we often ask and quickly answer certain questions: Will I enjoy talkingto him at this party? Will she make an interesting friend? Will he/she make a good boss / salesmanager / secretary for me? If we get to know the person better, we may change our minds. Butwe may not have the chance. 

From Nina’s inappropriate dress and aggressive behavior. toward me, I’d decided she waspushy. stupid and had poor judgment. I also had a lot of vague impressions I couldn ’t explain. Itwas as if a warning bell went off in my head. Its message: this person was not to be trusted; herbehavior. would be unpredictable; she was motivated by a peculiar agenda of her own that Iwould never understand. 

I was using a combination of observation, inference and intuition. 

Why did the author dislike Nina?