Comment on “Villains Eat Breakfast”

The post title got me. Good one, Alexis.

In real life, I try to avoid thinking of people as good and evil. This helps me communicate with people I disagree with. Sure, some people are just awful, but in general I find that I learn more if I assume people have good reasons for believing what they believe, and talking to them about it. Given that NPCs should be like real people, not like cutouts, is it a useful DM practice to try and avoid thinking of any NPC as a villain whenever possible?

Related: what are good ways to add some straight-up evil to an NPC without them becoming a caricature? Is it as simple as thinking, "They want XYZ thing like the players do - they're simply less scrupulous about what they have to do to get it"?