When I first met Nina, I disliked her at once. She was wearing skintight pedal pushers, a flashy, floppy top, and sneakers with no socks-bizarrely inappropriate even at our very informal company. Soon, Nina was doggedly pumping me for information about the new department I was running, where she hoped to get a permanent job. Not a chance, I thought. Not if I have anything to say about it.
    However, I didn't. Within a few days she was 'trying out' for me. I gave her a moderately difficult, uninteresting, and unimportant project that I didn't need for months. It took that long for her successor to put in order the mess she had made out of it. Although I couldn't have prediction exactly what Nina would do, in three minutes I had assessed her as someone who could not be relied on to get a job done.
    We all make quick judgments about strangers. Within seconds after we meet someone, we take in a host of details and draw rather large conclusions from them. We may decide in a minute whether it is someone's nature to be warm or cold, friendly or hostile, anxious or calm, happy or troubled. Unconsciously, we often ask and quickly answer certain questions: Will I enjoy talking to him at this party? Will she make an .interesting friend? Will he/she make a good boss/sales manager/secretary for me? If we get to know the person better, we may change our minds. But we may not have the chance.
    From Nina's inappropriate dress and aggressive behavior toward me, I'd decided she was pushy, stupid, and had poor judgment. I also had a lot of vague impressions I couldn't explain. It was as if a warning bell went off in my head. Its message: this person was not to be trusted; her behavior would be unpredictable; she was motivated by a peculiar agenda of her own that I would never understand.
    I was using a combination of observation, inference and intuition.