When I read the book “The Magic of Thinking BIG”, chapter 7 “Manage your environment: Go First Class”, a thought emerged into my head: friends are like genes.

When a baby was born, it is a product of genetic combinations of both the parents’. The differences between the parents’ genes will produce a brand new one. If, for example, the parents are siblings or close relatives (just for the sake of demonstration), and their children also continue to mate and give births, their children are very likely to have high risk of gene disorders. It is because doing so keeps narrowing down the gene pool or gene diversity.

I think making friends also have the same effect. If you keep making friends with the same type of people, same thoughts, same perspectives, you are narrowing down your thought pool. Making friends with different people will make you see things differently. But it’s important that you must be the one who choose which kind of thought or perspective that can add to your pool.