are you a sociopath because the inner struggles of your food delivery guy don't register to you, or have you just instrumentalized someone to achieve an end and

are you a sociopath because the inner struggles of your food delivery guy don't register to you, or have you just instrumentalized someone to achieve an end and you just relate with a transactional distance? no matter what you think you do, to someone you work for, you are the food delivery guy represented by a little dot whose progress to your destination someone is watching on their screen. maybe they're even racing you against another one, but it doesn't matter. I don' think the gervais principle enlightens anymore. I remember thinking it was amazing to see my suspicions laid out like this, but with some time and distance I don't know that I would share it with someone now. why demoralize them. I can see how it's demeaning and feels like punishment to take orders or show deference to someone who lacks heroic qualities, and really we should make a better class of managers, but it is the duty of all prisoners to escape, and they probably won't miss you anyway. there's an aspect of humility that comes from simple competence where all work is "we make a thing here so our families can eat," and if you're on an existential quest for belonging, you're probably not going to provide the value to others that yields the rewards of the business. Sure, money and power flows to some of the least interesting people doing the dullest things, but the dinner party they're boring at isn't the reconciliation or taking account of their course through life either. they do the thing and then eat at drive thrus and watch some tv. meaning for them comes from somewhere else. articles raging against them are dumb and misleading. trying to grind out meaning from every experience is exhausting and ephemeral because meaning is beautiful, but it's rarely shared and doesn't persist. this life is only what we actually do, so do something different.