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The article makes no attempt to establish that concern for others' interests is not necessarily mutually exclusive to self-interest. In his book Give and Take,
by Disillusioned9 9y ago
The article makes no attempt to establish that concern for others' interests is not necessarily mutually exclusive to self-interest.
In his book Give and Take, Adam Grant talks about givers who are "otherish:" they demonstrate strong compassion for others, but not at the neglect of self-interest. Those who identified as otherish were least susceptible to burnout or compassion fatigue and could sustain their patterns for giving more help than they received for long periods of time.
I suspect there is some correlation between high concern for the interests of others and low prioritization of self-interest. But the real culprit is low self-interest, not high empathy or a strong concern for fairness.
- newscracker 9y agoFrom practical observation, I disagree with your last point. When fighting for improving the state of affairs or fighting against injustice, the amount of time and effort it takes to achieve even small positive changes is huge in many areas. Even with self-interest, the amount of extreme hopelessness doesn’t really go away. Add to this the fact that people who could easily care and make a difference most often ignore things, it’s a recipe for becoming frustrated, feeling helpless and seeing things like a never ending struggle with very little to show for. The lack of empathy and the high prevalence of inaction among the majority act as triggers in all this.