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I see opportunities tending towards the most competent foremost, with psychopathy potentially helping but in many cases hurting. I've seen many people fired for

I see opportunities tending towards the most competent foremost, with psychopathy potentially helping but in many cases hurting. I've seen many people fired for being assholes, as an example of cases where these traits have hurt. All the psychopaths I've met have had pretty pathetic and lonely lives. People figure them out and they get sidelined. Politicians, quantum healers, fraudster psychics, snake oil salesmen, etc, are rare niches where psychopaths genuinely thrive over regular people. 5000 years ago you pretty much had to be willing to murder someone to get what you wanted and survive. Nowadays such ruthlessness is punished in many contexts more than rewarded. The corporate ruthlessness that we see today is such a tamed beast in comparison. So I'm not convinced that the selection for psychopathy has increased.

cryptica 5y ago
Only the least intelligent psychopaths get caught. The really smart ones are masters of PR; they can make themselves look more altruistic than actual altruists. They only show their true face once they no longer have a use for you. They are excellent actors. If the best manipulator in your local community is talented, think of how talented the best manipulator in your country is... Then compare that to how talented the best manipulator in world is. That is the danger of globalization. World-class psychopaths are as intelligent as other world-class individuals (very intelligent) but the difference is that almost all of their intelligence goes into presentation and manipulation - Very little goes into the actual craft that they are supposedly experts in. But from the perspective of non-experts, they come across as smarter than the actual experts.
- fighterpilot 5y ago
  It's true that smart psychopaths can do way outsized damage in today's world. The flip side is also true though, the genuinely good and competent can also have an outsized positive impact. I think this speaks more to the scale people can access through modern society (technology, capital, large orgs, and so on). I hope you're wrong. If not, we're in trouble.

cryptica 5y ago

Only the least intelligent psychopaths get caught. The really smart ones are masters of PR; they can make themselves look more altruistic than actual altruists. They only show their true face once they no longer have a use for you. They are excellent actors. If the best manipulator in your local community is talented, think of how talented the best manipulator in your country is... Then compare that to how talented the best manipulator in world is. That is the danger of globalization. World-class psychopaths are as intelligent as other world-class individuals (very intelligent) but the difference is that almost all of their intelligence goes into presentation and manipulation - Very little goes into the actual craft that they are supposedly experts in. But from the perspective of non-experts, they come across as smarter than the actual experts.

fighterpilot 5y ago
It's true that smart psychopaths can do way outsized damage in today's world. The flip side is also true though, the genuinely good and competent can also have an outsized positive impact. I think this speaks more to the scale people can access through modern society (technology, capital, large orgs, and so on). I hope you're wrong. If not, we're in trouble.