The most dangerous cognitive trap is the oversimplification of our fellow human beings. Let’s call it NPCification.

The human mind can only contain one full human mind at a time. In order for us to model each other, we do a quick mental diff as in “that person is like me except in x, y, or z way”. Only problem is that is a reductive model. You are shaving off so much intricacy in the name of saving a few precious joules of mental energy (but the brain is lazy and likes finding shortcuts), so we end up reducing each other to being less complex than ourselves.

In war. In sport. In romance. In business. In friendship. It’s a mistake to simplify others. You can’t help but do it, but you can be aware of the tendency so that it doesn’t cause you to miscalculate your whole life.