Weirdly, I'd say exceptional skill/talent winds up fostering empathy rather than hindering it. When you have exceptional talent, you quickly learn not everyone

Weirdly, I'd say exceptional skill/talent winds up fostering empathy rather than hindering it. When you have exceptional talent, you quickly learn not everyone is like you and that you need to understand their perspectives. Whereas if you're within the average range, you think everyone should be in the average range, so you can wind up overly frustrated with both those below it and those above it. People mistakenly believe that a proficiency in one area means a deficiency in others, like we're all given a set of stat points at birth we have to allocate. When the truth is some people are just generally proficient. There are people with higher intelligence and greater empathy. It's not a choice. And ironically, empathy is one of those things that is actually positively correlated with intelligence. Which kind of tracks as a component of intelligence is pattern recognition and empathy is a form of pattern recognition.