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What sort of evidence would convince you that someone isn't mean? I've know and worked with some of those people and not found them to be mean, but as other com
by paul 12y ago
What sort of evidence would convince you that someone isn't mean? I've know and worked with some of those people and not found them to be mean, but as other commenters have said, that makes no difference, because stories.
- foobarqux 12y agoSociopaths aren't mean to people they need something from and have no power over.
- paul 12y agoClearly you already have your answer and anything I say will only provide you with more evidence of your own correctness. If they do something harsh, that proves they are mean. If they do something nice, that proves they are a manipulative sociopath, and mean.
- foobarqux 12y agoI simply pointed out that the behavior of a sociopath is not defined by being nice but by self interest. That isn't controversial. So pointing out the kind, self-interested things a sociopath does is not meaningful in judging their character. That's a general principle, I don't know about the particular cases you allude to.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- boracay 12y agoYour first sentence doesn't exactly make your case more believable.
- mbesto 12y agoThere's two conflating issues here - one's definition of "mean" and what level of experience gives one the right to determine someone as "mean". If we are to assume that pg is in fact correct in his conclusion, then what are the examples (data points) that would bring one to this conclusion?
- throwaway123311 12y agoMy view of Steve Jobs being mean comes from Walter Isaacson's biography. What would change my mind is if the witnesses mentioned in the biography came out claiming that the stories were fabricated. But if the stories are true, then he was a nasty person. That he may have been nice to some people does negate the nastiness to other people. My view of Zuckerberg being mean comes from personal experience. Zuck was not that mean, nothing like Walter Isaacson's description of Jobs. But at the time (years ago), he was probably 90th percentile in terms of meanness of the people I have known. He could sneak in barbs and be quite disdainful to people who he viewed as less than him (in one case shouting a person down and calling them stupid). In a previous comment, you wrote that "but it's a mistake to believe you know someone based on a collection of sensationalized stories." This is correct. But is there any evidence that the stories about Jobs or Bill Gates were sensationalized? "Sensationalized" is the operative word. If the stories are true, then the person is in fact mean, and it is a mistake to view them as not mean, simply because they are always nice around you.