DISCLAIMER: This blog post is entirely personal opinions and does not provide 100% psychologically true content.
Egoism has been a topic of importance for me for since I have started following FOSS. Mainly because of the sharing culture that is present in the community. In the FOSS community, people share their knowledge, their code, their time and others help them in return. Nobody is hiding their code or knowledge.
My bad automatic egoist assumption
Unfortunately, I tend to instantly assume whether someone is an egoist or not based on the first few interactions. There are some red flags that make me suddenly assume that the person is an egoist. For example:
- Not being open to criticism
- Rejecting that they are wrong
- Not willing to accept their mistakes
- Craving for attention
- “You wouldn’t understand” attitude
- “I am not like others” attitude
DISCLAIMER: This is not a good trait and should be avoided. Basically, don’t try this at home. This is basically judging a book by its cover.
Egoism holds you from improving
I have personally experienced this in a period in my life where I wouldn’t listen to anyone’s opinions. Thinking that no matter what, my opinion is correct. This led to numerous wrong beliefs, and some socializing issues.
Egoism makes you untolerable
At some degree of egoism, you become annoying. Others try to avoid socializing with you because you tend to gravitate conversations about asserting that you are correct. Or some individuals tend to constantly try to correct others, which might not be the best thing when having a conversation.
Sometimes… It is just copium
From my experience, egoism can be a coping mechanism where individuals might use it to escape from the fact that they are wrong, and their subconscious use it as a method to deal with the mental struggles people are having.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we are all humans. Humans are completely capable of making mistakes, and we should not deny it.