Well, I’ve (mostly) taken myself out of the compliment business, at least as far as looks go. I say nice things about my wife a fair amount (I think… I may have to get back to you on that) [wait, I forget she’s on Medium now — hey Debra A Herlocker, do I compliment you on your wonderful looks the right amount?] but otherwise, not so much. With my IT coworkers it’s easy, because we’re all male technogeeks, so it’s like, “Hey, nice t-shirt!” (Fridays) or “Hey, nice tie!” (not-Fridays). Women, it’s better if I just shut up. Although I’ve gotten better. I think.

[original comment] “What the hell did you do to your hair?”

[comment later in life] “What in the world did you do to your hair? Looks nice.”

[still later in life] “Nice hair!”

[and later] “Hi… ummm…”

I let my wife pass out the compliments now. Not saying it’s a perfect method, but it works for me.