I would say that you’re onto something. I personally spent years finding myself, doing all sorts of things from dance, to drawing, and of course yoga and medita

I would say that you’re onto something. I personally spent years finding myself, doing all sorts of things from dance, to drawing, and of course yoga and meditation. What struck me — regardless of whether I was amongst engineers or artists — is how many of us never advanced our sense of self, even though we became better and better at what we did. You know what happened after all of that? Well we generally became more and more condescending towards people less accomplished than us, and all that impostor syndrome became directed outward. Maybe I’m a little annoyed at the simplistic view towards “ego.” Ego is not just good or bad. Even in Western thought, the Jungians had a deeper treatment of the self than most would ever read, and there’s an idea that the best parts of ourselves are also related to the worst parts of ourselves. This is where someone with Buddhist inclinations might say it’s important to be able to see past/through the ego. Losing the self is important. Among other things, it helps you get in touch with your own mortality. Just as important is accepting one’s inevitable death, and for that, one must find some peace with the sense of self. So I wouldn’t read too much into it if some scientist, trying to stick verifiable labels onto things, mistook finding the self for “self-enhancement.” Then a journalist continued with their interpretation of the paper, and now we have a game of telephone. Last but not least, it is possible to do yoga and meditation badly.