On choosing collaborators: Consider their life attitude and priorities in addition to their abilities

Some people take things more seriously than you do and some people less. Finding a happy agreed-upon middle ground may not always be possible. Often there is no right or wrong; it depends on people's priorities and their general approach to life.

You can end up with a less than desired outcome, or conversely you may have a hard time tolerating overly critical eyes.

Making sure that the collaborative environment motivates everyone is important, but an important part of everyone's broader environment is out of control. It would be helpful to think in advance of a collaboration, about the match between your expectations from others and their life attitude and priorities (not just their abilities).

Grad school admission, job interviews, and other processes that we use to choose those who we will be working with (i.e. collaborators) often focus a lot (some times too much) on applicants' abilities.