This reminds me of part of some novel I read a while ago. Something about a newly turned noble learning how to act like a noble. Organizing parties and knowing who exactly to invite and how to receive them, having his butler tell him a few important things about a person before going to talk to them, when and how to ask ladies for a dance, conforming to certain unspoken rules of etiquette, and the list goes on. I almost felt the exhaustion just from reading.

All just superficial interactions to keep up the social standing, presenting yourself as special and useful to associate with while not actually making any meaningful connection with anyone. That's the feeling I got from reading that scene as well as whenever I hear about this networking stuff.

That's one of the most important reasons I enjoy being able to work from home every once in a while. I'm lucky to have great colleagues and it's fun chatting with them during breaks, but it's still somewhat exhausting at the end of the day. Meanwhile at home there's some online meetings or a few chat messages to exchange, other than that I can just forget about the socializing for a bit and really get into whatever tasks I have.