Humble and Egotist

I was musing on the drive to work today and was thinking an egotist is someone that has never be humbled by making a mistake? That's impossible because we all make mistakes. So an egotist must be in denial of the mistakes they have made.

For me I would rather interreact with a person that has been humbled and is in touch with reality and their limits than one who denies reality and has a false sense of their abilities.

A person can be confident and believe they have unlimited potential and abilities but they don't have to be egotist about it.

I only posted this for a little discussion if anyone is interested.

Rickie wrote: I was musing on the drive to work today and was thinking an egotist is someone that has never be humbled by making a mistake? That's impossible because we all make mistakes. So an egotist must be in denial of the mistakes they have made.

I find them generally defending of their mistakes, by the blaming of circumstances being beyond their control...

"Its not my fault, ______ is why it happened."

Therefore, in their eyes, they are seldom wrong...

It is pretty interesting when you read people like I do...

I have been wrong on my guesses of people, but, Ive been right more than wrong, lol...

But of those I was wrong, it is because they were not being their true selves, or they were trying to trap/fool me...

(LIke I just did with the last sentence, ..I did it intentionally, lol)

Rickie wrote: I was musing on the drive to work today and was thinking an egotist is someone that has never be humbled by making a mistake? That's impossible because we all make mistakes. So an egotist must be in denial of the mistakes they have made.

For me I would rather interreact with a person that has been humbled and is in touch with reality and their limits than one who denies reality and has a false sense of their abilities.

A person can be confident and believe they have unlimited potential and abilities but they don't have to be egotist about it.

I only posted this for a little discussion if anyone is interested.

A egoist that read: ,,So an egoist must be in denial of the mistakes they have made.'' If an egoist would tell himself that he did make mistakes, in order to be not considered an egoist.. Would be egoism as well?

"in order to be not considered an egoist"

By who?

By himself? Then it would be delusional but still egotistical.

By others? Then it would be deceptive but still egotistical.

"If an egoist would tell himself that he did make mistakes"

I think they do it's the denial that makes it egotistical.

for myself its when i come up with some reason to disregard or lessen someone elses value that i become an egotist

we're not all equally good at ping pong
but i am good at ping pong
so when i talk to someone who is not good at ping pong, or worse, when i talk to someone who is so much better at ping pong than i am that im not even good enough to appreciate how much better they are, and i act or think as if my being this great honorable ping pong ball player is some kind of special position that sets me apart, THATS when my egotism knocks me right out of my proper mind and i stop really listening to and appreciating others

so my goal is to be the best ping pong player possible without thinking that it makes me superior

im not really worried about anyone elses egotism right now

An egoist might be someone who's self identity is focused on using egotism to relate to concepts, so I guess egotism is like an offensive posture of preemptive and counter attack to any negative association back to their self (by others or themselves). So you could imagine then that some things might appear egotistic when not. I think the later has opportunity to include humility, while also still having the capacity to appear egotistic.... just to confuse the issue. But an egotist (by trade, LOL) is probably running some serious self denial perhaps to the point of constructing delusions of grandeur.

Humble is a good (best?) approach IMO, but once things get to details sometimes a thorough posture can be quite disarming and perceived as offensive, in the above context.

But can be being humble used as a TRAP?!!!! The egotist could use humility to shape circumstance to lead into their egotism! The workforce is full of people running their own agenda's to the point of tearing others down for their own benefit and its long been said the sociopath is the most convincing personality - because not only are they themselves are a lie, but they've been practising it their whole lives. So long as the team on the Forest Moon of Endor gets the shield down we'll be ok LOL, but in the workplace there has to be a measure of self preservation.. IMO just not at the design of the expense of others.
:S

And in some cases you are actually encouraged to behave like an egoist. On the way back from a conference one of my professors and I had a conversation about what you need to do to suceed as a woman in computer science and academia in general. We also talked about the differences she sees in female students and male students. What she basically said was you have to be confidant in the extreme. You have to project the belief even if your not that you are the absolute best programmer/researcher in your school. She said a lot of female students don't project that kind of confidence which is on the edge of pure arrogance. She asked me how I would rank myself against my fellow students and I said I have no idea. She said most of her male students would say they were great in comparison. It was the first time I had ever really heard someone saying that having the attitude that there is always more to learn is a bad thing and that projecting that attitude could have negative consequences for your career. Apparently, being humble is not an advantage when it comes to a scientific career.

a discussion going on in the jediism section made me remember this thread

i guess im not the only one whos good at ping pong

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Captain Obvious: your not really talking about ping pong, are you?

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lol, no

it does bring a question tho

at what point is the line drawn between standing ones ground and taking someone elses?

when is it good to challenge convention and when does it become simple antagonism?

OB1Shinobi wrote: when is it good to challenge convention and when does it become simple antagonism?

around the time one decides that humility is a worthless value for jedi...

not naming names but one antagonistic individual considers humility to be beneath a jedi's concern....that it is something to mock and belittle....