The people in the waiting room in the play "No Exit" are all fairly smart but they are really different kinds of people. Each thinks of the others, "How could I be in a waiting room with someone like that?"

Although they are all reasonably smart, they have in common being slow to understand where they are. That is because of the other thing they have in common--being transcendently self-centered.

The quote from the play that gets around, "Hell is other people" says where they are; in hell. Really.

I like that Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote the play, is famous for that quote. Jean-Paul Sartre did a large amount of writing and he did much of it in cafes, in the midst of other people. Other people are hell; other people provide a good background buzz; other people are good to have around to talk to during breaks.