I would consider both positions more 'attitudes' than well-formed opinions on how one should act. You've been accused of having a 'bad attitude,' which I think

I would consider both positions more 'attitudes' than well-formed opinions on how one should act. You've been accused of having a 'bad attitude,' which I think is fair, but it ignores where you're coming from. You may be relying on this attitude to counterbalance a history of fruitless attempts at relating to people with seemingly little to offer. I bet you feel emancipated from worrying about doing something you don't actually feel inclined to do. That's fine, but just note that you may, later in life, find that people who are different from you might have a lot to offer. Or you may not. You can't make a definitive statement about this sort of thing. To give an example from my life, a few years ago I realized I had become completely out of touch with "mainstream America," so I decided to make a project out of discovering why so many people live such apparently bland lives, watched so many television shows, liked fast-food chains, etc. Since then I've learned to relish conversations with people who seem to have nothing to offer me. I'll ask them probing questions and try to expand my own mental framework to incorporate a reality where their answers make sense. Turns out a lot of people who hold positions of great responsibility, such as entrepreneurs, executives, and politicians, live quite boring lives by my standards, and I learned through this inquiry that there's a very good reason for this. Obviously this is a lossy generalization, but it seems to me that in many cases, because they are so burdened with risk in their work lives, they need to counterbalance this with total security and banality in their personal lives. And then others just see no reason to challenge themselves. C'est la vie! On the flip side, I've also, like you, learned not to spend too much time with people who don't challenge me. Sometimes that means making difficult decisions, and sometimes it means maintaining a sour attitude temporarily. We all have our own energetic-emotional phase-space to navigate.