8 ms·
Psychopaths are very useful. Surgeons, butchers, salespeople etc. are more likely to be psychopaths. You don't want a surgeon to have empathy when he's cutting
by thisisbad 10y ago
Psychopaths are very useful. Surgeons, butchers, salespeople etc. are more likely to be psychopaths.
You don't want a surgeon to have empathy when he's cutting your leg off.
You don't want a butcher to have empathy for animals.
You don't want a salesperson to care about rejections.
You don't want a CEO to be reluctant about laying people off.
- bootload 10y agoThis is a good observation. Where the behaviour becomes toxic is where the line is drawn. The surgeon who decides one patient isn't worthy of attention, the butcher who needlessly injures animals, the salesperson who defrauds sales figures.
- solipsism 10y agoMaybe YOU don't want a CEO to be reluctant about laying people off. I like working in places where my humanity has some value, even if it's not the most important thing. Maybe YOU don't want a surgeon who won't nick an artery if she thinks she can get away with it, because death has a strange appeal to her, but I like living. It's a bit hyperbolic, but so's your statement. We don't need psychopaths, we need people who can keep their emotions in check. Training, exercise, mediation, and drugs are all useful tools for this.
- nstj 10y agoWithout wanting to drift OT, the capitalisation of YOU doesn't really seem all that necessary here.
- Chinjut 10y agoI, uh, totally want my surgeon to have empathy when he or she is cutting my leg off.
- erklik 10y agoAnd then your leg gets cut off at the wrong angle since his hands are not under his control due to emotional connection. or He doesn't cut it off and then your diseases or issue spreads and your whole body gets paralysed.
- errantspark 10y agoI doubt these are common failure modes.
- jasoncchild 10y agoDoesn't matter, this is plainly grasping at straws for the sake of argument.
- iopq 10y agoSomeone who has a lot of empathy probably can't handle being a surgeon in the first place. It would be too stressful for them.
- wepple 10y agoor they have sufficient empathy to know that what they're doing might be painful but will ultimately save your life or increase your quality of life, and thus is absolutely worth doing.
- Q6T46nT668w6i3m 10y agoA terrible and disingenuous trope. Surgeons make numerous decisions during surgery that require extraordinary empathy to deliver the best outcome. And, unsurprisingly, surgery outcomes are strongly correlated with strong doctor-patient relationships. Moreover, your use of the word "handle" is peculiar. Modern operating rooms are not horror movie sets. (I apologize for my aggressiveness. This is a major pet peeve!)
- iopq 10y agoYou can make the correct decision for the patient by wishing for the best outcome for them. It does not mean you have to have empathy for them. Empathy is the ability to place yourself in another's position. Let me give you another example. I'm an expert poker player. I understand why worse players play the way they do, but I can't empathize with it. I simply can't put myself in a position where I'd play so poorly, so I can only say I understand it from a "they're bad, so they make mistakes" point of view. But this does not preclude me from making thousands of dollars at the casino from said players. Someone who is able to better empathize with that person might also make more basic strategy mistakes than me and they won't profit as much. Empathy does not guarantee better outcomes. A doctor could have a great relationship with a person and still not able to empathize fully with their issue.
- fletchowns 10y agoThese are terrible observations. Are you sure you're not the psychopath? Of course you want a butcher to to have empathy for animals. This ensures they treat the animals humanely. What you don't want is for a butcher to be overcome by emotion every time they have to kill an animal. Of course you want a salesperson to care about rejections, how are they to improve their sales tactics? What you don't want is for them to take every rejection personally. Of course you want a CEO to be reluctant about laying people off. It should be one of the most self-scrutinized decisions they make. If they are willing to do it on a whim, that's not a CEO you want to work for. Same for the doctor one, but you get my point.
- lccarrasco 10y agoIMO, there's no way to treat animals humanely while also killing them to eat them just for their taste, there are perfectly good replacements for all the nutrients you can argue meat provides. Even in "Humane" Farms there is sexual violation and exploitation (via forced insemination), separation of mothers from their babies, routine mutilations (debeaking, castration, dehorning) and many other things that disregard the animal's instincts and preferences. Sorry for the rant.
- aoeuasdf1 10y agoThank you for the voice of reason
- sp527 10y ago> Of course you want a butcher to to have empathy for animals. This ensures they treat the animals humanely. What you don't want is for a butcher to be overcome by emotion every time they have to kill an animal. Do you have any idea what it's like to routinely slaughter small to medium sized animals? I'm sitting here wondering how that could not be very difficult for a normal, well-adjusted person to do for any extended period of time. Doesn't imply pure psycopathy, however. Perhaps 'psychopathic tendencies' would be a more apt phrasing.
- jimjimjim 10y agoThe parent post is terrible view of the world and humanity. I hope you never have power to influence anything.