I know exactly what I’d do in your situation: help others. I live in a small city, and it has some problems and some opportunities. Even lacking funds I still do what I can to help the community around me. Spend some time with people who aren’t all in tech or on the beach and go find some reality. People like elon preaching doge are too far removed. Work on the ground. It’s hard and it’s real.
Best of luck!
I have a similar sense. However, I’m not sure empathizing with them is itself the trap. You don’t want your empathy to make you overly credulous. For example, while you might empathize with him feeling directionless at the acquiring company, I don’t think you should therefore conclude that he is right about the new coworkers being “NPCs.”
Then you'll have to ratchet up boundaries to address the relational patterns with people who are having a hard time, so that you're not a participant in their suffering.
And you'll have to start working on the patterns underneath the problems, which when you get into it starts to look more and more like the kind of megalomaniacal moonshot ("give computers arms and legs" / "fix the government now!") that the author ran out of gas on.
I think where you end up if you think about this is just recognizing that a) you probably should try to do some ambitious, high-leverage project to make the world better and b) reflecting about the world and about life in a thorough way is emotionally difficult for most people, so you also have to deal with those emotions.
The author's original somewhat manic intentions were probably right, and maybe he needed a bit more of a rest but was plowing forward out of fear that he'd lose his nerve. Now he's getting some rest and will probably figure out something big, important, and hard to work on in the next few years.
Rich people have problems. This dude is clearly focused on himself. He doesn't need the emotional currency of others unless he's willing to give a lot more his (love and empathy).
What exactly is "people like this"? I thought this was a very genuine account from a regular person who worked hard, made a ton of money from it, and now finds that the money didn't give him the satisfaction he expected. It's honest and, frankly, extremely unsurprising and straightforward.
I was echoing the use in TFA, but that doesn’t really make it any better.
Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion is a 2016 book written by psychologist Paul Bloom. The book draws on the distinctions between empathy, compassion, and moral decision making. Bloom argues that empathy is not the solution to problems that divide people and is a poor guide for decision making.
I'm sorry, but quite frankly, what in the world are you talking about?
i invest in companies and am willing to offer help to founders i vibe with for free and for no allocation
it reflects more something like "I will share my pearls of wisdom with those I deem worthy" (ego trip)
