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title: My apathy and altruism
---

*Note: For now this is just a rant without much substance. Please don't take it
very seriously.*

I feel I should clarify a certain internal tension people might observe
in me, namely that on one hand, I participate in seemingly altruistic
activities, have an interest in altruism, might appear friendly, etc.,
but that on the other hand, I seem to exhibit certain patterns in
temperament of a misanthrope. While I don't really consider myself
either an altruist or a misanthrope, I want to clarify that I don't think
there is any contradiction in being both a misanthrope (in the sense of
being apathetic to most humans; not of actively doing harm to them) and an altruist at the same time.

In terms of being a "misanthrope", I readily admit that I find most
people extremely boring, to the point of having difficulty interacting
with them. I frequently describe myself as being orthogonal to most
people, in the sense that the dot product of our interests is zero.
Indeed, there is a lack of [coincidence of
wants](http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/06/how_i_raised_my.html)
which makes most forms of social interaction painful. Unless
contractually expected, it's not really my duty to help people maintain
their ego---or whatever; I'm frank in my criticism of people when they
seek it.

> My past envy was the result of a distortion of perception; in fact
> none of the relationships I observe are ones I would rather forsake my
> current position to be in. What I want does not yet exist in this
> world.

I suppose I should clarify that I don't purposely act coldly toward
people, or be belligerent, and so forth.  In fact, I like to consider
myself to be somewhere between "neutral" and "friendly" most of the
time.

This generally works out because I don't expect anything from others
either, so they generally leave me alone.

Keeping in mind all of the above, 

- also talk about animals \& people's ability to empathize with them

http://www.critical-theory.com/professor-of-the-year-if-you-dont-give-me-any-of-your-shitty-papers-you-get-an-a/