There are two types of people in the World. Only two. That’s it. Two only. Either you are This, or you are That. Which kind are you? Where do you stand?

The categorizing of people is dangerous. It has divided culture. It has led to deep resentments, persecution, harassment, firings, riots and sometimes bloodshed.

One category of people blames another category and there is never any real dialogue or resolution. The focus on what a person symbolizes rather than who he is has become problematic cultural fetish.

The categorizing of people has gone on for decades. We brand people as white males and black males and white females and black females and transgender and homosexual and bisexual and lesbian.

And conservative and liberal and Republican and Democrat, placing them each into a neat group that comes with associated traits.

Where is the research to back up this trend of categorization, this attitude of looking at people as symbols instead of as people.

Where is the research that shows how categorizing and generalizing about race and gender is good for humanity.

Where is the research that shows that dividing people into categories and comparing them to one another is beneficial. There is no research.

There are two types of people in the World:

• Me and You.
• those who walk into a room and say ‘There you are!’ and those who say ‘Here I am!’
• those who are on my side or those who are in my way.
• those who follow the rules and those who make the rules.
• those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.
• those who make things complicated, and those who make things simple.
• those who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things.
• those who love to talk, and those who hate to listen.

When you categorize, you think in terms of prototypes. But that makes it easy to forget the multitude of variations that exist within the category you have established.

When you categorize, you exaggerate differences across the category boundaries. That leads you to stereotype people from other groups, set arbitrary thresholds for decisions, and draw inaccurate conclusions.

When you categorize, you impose a categorical structure, you tend to favor certain categories over others. Insufficiently attending to other categories can be harmful.

There are 7,750,341,482 people in the World, and counting. But in many ways, it is fairly easy to divide us all into two types.

There are the people who like order and follow the rules and then there are others who are a bit messier, and tend to think outside of the box.