social engineering friendships

The process of becoming popular.

First, one comes to the realization that he or she has every right to have friends.

Next, the engineer learns that popular is a pretty way of saying useful. The more useful the engineer is to his or her subjects the more the subjects will like him or her.
Once initial contact has been made, the engineer looks for aspects of his or her subject's personality that he or she can relate to, or for more advanced engineers, manipulate.
Soon a mutual trust of future usefulness is developed; more experienced engineers will hedge their trust, as paranoia is a common symptom of practicing social engineering.
Eventually the engineer need no longer seem useful to his or her subject; the engineer has acquired a new

friend.