This is going to be a weird question but I'd rather ask and learn. In my deep BP days I was always the thirsty guy looking for someone to talk with (scarcity mentality) and that was true not only with the girl I was orbiting but with the males I was trying to befriend.

As a result, I never really learned to behave as if all's good, be picky on my contacts and learn how to drop from a contact someone who's deemed bad to me, at least not without being full upfront about it and just drop them on the spot.

But the more I learn about TRP the more I realize that there might be some use to contacts that I don't see at the present moment - networking use. So I thought "huh, perhaps there's a better way to go about nexting someone without him going 'well I've found you on and you didn't respond'" when I get a chance meeting with them.

The tl;dr version: Since my BP days I learned to just cut contact on the spot (hard next) with people I realized they're not good to be friends with but I'm now trying to find a way to "soft next" without closing the door completely, for purely utilitarian reasons - maybe a job offer might pop out. I'm also kind of wearing "my feelings on my sleeve" and people can tell whether I like them or not, can I get better in this, for the sake of playing the game of politics (in office or wherever it comes up)? Any tips?