Comment by jkolio

3 days ago

When my car broke down in the middle of a DoorDash run, I walked to a nearby park and sat next to a homeless guy who was about my age. He was deaf; we talked via text on our phones about how we'd ended up on the same bench, and I shared some of my food. I learned from him how resilient someone can be, even under incredibly unfair circumstances, but more importantly, he got something to eat.

It's not all about you.

You and the homeless guy aren't peers, you just did a nice thing. You're not going to classes with him or working alongside him

  • I was (and remain) a few bad breaks from his situation. I'm not responsible for his state, but we absolutely are peers (i.e., same age, facing the same broad socioeconomic environment).

Exactly. It's not all about you. It's best for the community to encourage education, and dragging down students who actually care about education does the opposite.

  • Your selfishness is not equal to my desire for common prosperity. If anything, lone wolf-ism is what drags us down (no matter how proficient the wolf thinks he is). We live in a society.

    • > lone wolf-ism is what drags us down

      with respect to what metric? economic growth? that's probably not true, lone wolfism is what drives people to develop expertise in the first place

      if the metric is community or "sustainability" or something else, is pursuing that metric in the place of economic growth sustainable long term?