How can egotistical thinking block a more transparent view of the world?

[Saiyan300Warrior]

How can be self absorbed/egotistical hinder a persons ability to view the world better. Does it corrupt knowledge? Is critical thinking to you the perfect way for a person to think? I don't know what that is exactly but I hear it thrown around on the internet, yes I know google exists and I will search it up later.

What are the negatives and positives of being egotistical or self absorbed?

[StringJunky]

Empathy would likely suffer, putting ones needs before others.

[joigus]

32 minutes ago, Saiyan300Warrior said:

How can be self absorbed/egotistical hinder a persons ability to view the world better. Does it corrupt knowledge?

It corrupts knowledge for obvious reasons. Taking a one-sided (non-objective) view of facts can only lead to misconceptions.

As a consequence, it also corrupts the ethics of societies. Example: The banking-system's ethos: We want to take full advantage of predictable fluctuations in the market that are invisible to the general public, while taking full advantage of the general public when fluctuations become unpredictable --by taxing them to cover for our losses. We hide the flaws and shortcuts of such system behind a thick layer of red-tape, legalese, and marketing lingo.

The more analytically intricate the system of concepts is, the higher the risk for pitfalls, both ethically and conceptually.

[dimreepr]

49 minutes ago, joigus said:

It corrupts knowledge for obvious reasons. Taking a one-sided (non-objective) view of facts can only lead to misconceptions.

As a consequence, it also corrupts the ethics of societies. Example: The banking-system's ethos: We want to take full advantage of predictable fluctuations in the market that are invisible to the general public, while taking full advantage of the general public when fluctuations become unpredictable --by taxing them to cover for our losses. We hide the flaws and shortcuts of such system behind a thick layer of red-tape, legalese, and marketing lingo.

The more analytically intricate the system of concepts is, the higher the risk for pitfalls, both ethically and conceptually.

A great answer +1

I'd just add, it also corrupts one's abillity to be content; imagine only being happy when one is proven better than other's, in a field of 7 billion other's? 

[Saiyan300Warrior]

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

A great answer +1

I'd just add, it also corrupts one's abillity to be content; imagine only being happy when one is proven better than other's, in a field of 7 billion other's? 

I agree, being content is hard when you are so self absorbed/narcistic that you try in ways to compete with other people and when you fail it kind of depresses you a bit, reality hits you and when you can't accept reality you sometimes create fairy tales and some of those fairy tales is thinking you are something more than you are. I am not sure if I suffer from this or I am just self reflecting thus becoming more self aware and expanding on minor flaws I may have. I think when a person spends too much time being theoretical rather than gaining practical experience they start losing a sense of reality by thinking too much about possibility than what is realistic and most probable. Through that lost sense of reality they fall inwards and try and build themselves up with those most of the time false fantasies.

Edit: Better I not mention that online I think lol

Edited October 2, 2020 by Saiyan300Warrior

[dimreepr]

4 minutes ago, Saiyan300Warrior said:

So yeah just a bunch a words from me based on experience and mental health issues...

Don't worry about it, but if talking helps feel free... Just post in the right forum. 😉

[iNow]

Every human has biases and processes information through their own various filters. Being self-centered or egotistical is just one type of filter or bias, but there are scores of others. Seems rather arbitrary to focus solely on this one personality trait as if it's in any way more profound or important than others... one might even suggest you're corrupting your own knowledge or losing your own sense of reality. 

[Saiyan300Warrior]

2 hours ago, iNow said:

Every human has biases and processes information through their own various filters. Being self-centered or egotistical is just one type of filter or bias, but there are scores of others. Seems rather arbitrary to focus solely on this one personality trait as if it's in any way more profound or important than others... one might even suggest you're corrupting your own knowledge or losing your own sense of reality. 

Hmm so what do you think is a better way to think, or better bunch of guidelines to think with. If you don't focus on any one negative then how do you know what is a more positive trait or which is really a negative bias? No filter is chaotic mess, filter is unique to everyone but collective thinking gives us common guidelines... so... what do you think is like middle ground? Critical thinking? Again I will google it one day just not today 

[iNow]

1 hour ago, Saiyan300Warrior said:

Again I will google it one day just not today

And I might reply to your many questions one day too, just not today

[MSC]

On 10/2/2020 at 11:56 AM, Saiyan300Warrior said:

Hmm so what do you think is a better way to think, or better bunch of guidelines to think with. If you don't focus on any one negative then how do you know what is a more positive trait or which is really a negative bias? No filter is chaotic mess, filter is unique to everyone but collective thinking gives us common guidelines... so... what do you think is like middle ground? Critical thinking? Again I will google it one day just not today 

The middle ground here would be ethics. If you're asking questions of the meaning or distinction of positive and negative values then we are in meta-ethical territory. That's not me saying, the middle ground is being ethical, the middle ground is thinking critically about what the good and bad are and what they mean. 

Also, google everything you can. If I had a dime for everytime I forgot to google something or go to the library, I'd be a rich man who's probably about to forget where he left that bloody fortune. 

Why you should research what you're thinking before you say it out loud; to avoid calling yourself stupid later. Not other people, yourself. 

Which brings me to the situational context sensitivity of things like being egotistical. Sometimes, it's beneficial, other times it is not. It depends on how the ego manifests itself. 

Imagine this scenario, a group of students file into an exam room. Two of the students are extremely arrogant. One believes outright that he will pass, because after all they are amazing. The other, believes outright they will do the right thing and use all the time they are given to complete the exam, because after all they are amazing. 

Both students believe they are going to perform really well, but only one of them is going to rush through the exam and leave early without checking over anything. 

As INow says, it's best not to build a bias toward egotistical thinking. Just because an egoic asshole says something which is true every now and then doesn't mean they will corrupt the knowledge, just their view of themselves. They might not even be corrupting that.

You should also be aware that there are some theories that speculate that every act a human does comes from a place of egoism, even if they think they are being selfless or altruistic since even those acts can have positive benefits besides financial reward or thanks. I don't actually agree with them but the work behind them is still pretty insightful amd true to a limited extent. 

[𝓔𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓮𝓵]

Egotistical thinking puts one's own needs above others when, given the circumstances of the situation, they should not do so.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. However, when this aforementioned act comes at the expense of delaying or even hindering the helping of others, that is where it becomes a problem, and that problem is at the centre of egotistical thinking - a problem that refuses to be forsaken when the ego dominates the higher self.

[dimreepr]

14 hours ago, 𝓔𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓮𝓵 said:

Egotistical thinking puts one's own needs above others when, given the circumstances of the situation, they should not do so.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. However, when this aforementioned act comes at the expense of delaying or even hindering the helping of others, that is where it becomes a problem, and that problem is at the centre of egotistical thinking - a problem that refuses to be forsaken when the ego dominates the higher self.

It can be argued that digging up long dead thread's, to reply without, apparently, reading that thread, in order to provide your wisdom, is egotistical. 

Your time here may be better spent, in thinking of an original question.

[Knowledge Enthusiast]

I feel egotistical behaviour and shallow behaviour are similar in the focus on achieving status. To my understanding, focusing too hard on achieving actually narrows a person's focus, which makes them worse at thinking outside the box. I feel it is better being passionate or artistically drawn to something because being passionate or artistically drawn does not have the effect of narrowing a person's focus. This I feel probably explains why some of history's great thinkers are seldom egotistical or shallow. Instead, they are often obsessively passionate.