Are Type-A Personalities the problem with humanity?
This came into my thoughts recently, both due to a general thought of "humans just need to chill the fuck out" and also overhearing this person at the gym the other day (story below)
This person was doing a video stream at the gym (being respectful, not getting anyone else in shot, talking quietly enough to not disturb others), and I was like ok whatever. Then a group started talking to him and he was telling the whole story of how he was working 60 hour weeks and not being healthy so then he started taking supplements (and some focus drug..not sure if rittalin or whatever) and started forcing himself to work out super hard and get in shape (which he was), then he decided he wanted to make health/fitness his goal, while working his other job, so then he was working 80 hr weeks, then eventually he made this his main job, vibe coded a website, used an llm to scrape terabytes of any health data he could find then put on his website (this is the part that made me cringe hard) and now sells subscriptions to it. To be fair, he even told this group "yeah if you sign up and cancel on the 29th day doesn't matter to me you don't need to pay" as one does.
I don't know. I just got a weird vibe from this and then thought maybe that's the brains of these CEO's and entrepreneur types. It just feels a little slimy to me. Even though they were bettering themselves and I commend that, I just got a bad feeling off of it. I'm sure he was an alright dude. It's definitely part jealously; don't we all wish we could be that driven to achieve goals? I've never achieved a goal in my life. But I also think if humans in general chilled out (not being lazy mind you, do the work needed, but we don't need to build 6895 factories and deforest our natural world to make a buck type thing) we would be better off.
24 replies
You're mixing up terms. The word you're looking for is Cluster B Personality Disorders (narcissism, sociopathy, attachment disorders, etc.).
There's a difference between people who are driven and competitive, and people who lust for power at all costs.
Edit: But yes, Cluster B disorders are humanity's Great Filter.
Agree that there's a difference. Disagree that driven and competitive people are not a big part of the problem.
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hell yeah lets further demonise people struggling with mental health disorders
Yeah let's stand up for the narcissists!
Let's do one of the two extremes because everything is binary.
lets stand up for people that are thrown into the same pot as the big bad guys simply because they have a condition (or more) in common.
not to mention the other cluster B disorders (antisocial, borderline, histrionic) are getting dragged under the bus too. There's evil people that are also narcissistic, there's evil people that aren't. Blame the person, not the mental illness.
It's the problem and the solution at the same time. We arguably wouldn't be where we are today without a certain portion of the population being uber-competitive, and sometimes that competitiveness will flip into ruthlessness.
And a good deal of the ruthless people will not only survive, but thrive, and be able to amass resources to be attractive mates and provide well for children. It's frankly amazing that cooperation hasn't been even more bred out of the human psyche than it already is.
We're now able to see what the future holds as a result of hoarding and overconsumption. The world will thin our herd, and cooperation will become a more valuable trait as available resources dwindle.
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
-- Blaise Pascal
And here I am posting on it 🙄 oh no
What's type-A? Is it like astrology?
It's astrology for people who get angry when they hear people talk about astrology.
More or less yeah, astrology.
The post could say Capricorns instead of Type A and it would mean the same thing pretty much.
No, its a commonly referred to "personality type". In simple terms "go getters"
Maybe it's people that identify as "alpha"?
I mean, be the change you want to see. I can't say I've felt jealousy at people like that since I have my own things going on guided by my own values
Thats good. I mean, in my head I am a go getter person kind of. In reality I have 5000 projects and am a semi hoarder because time is running out and I have to do it all before I die or get some debilitating disease or we get massive flooding and it destroys my house. Theres not enough time
yuck a gym/fitness influencer peddling thier bs. sounds like the guy could be making up stuff for the grift, as they often do. influencers are often already coming from money, and they certain never work or will work 80+hrs.
Yeah, I mean props to them for getting buff and all but...yeah. I just got a bad feeling from them.
Yeah, the problem is not that the dude is type-a (though not sure that's even the case since he just vibe coded some BS), the problem is he's a grifter grind-maxer which are distinct things.
Honestly, I think type-A and type-B are WAY to simplified to be useful in any context, let alone diagnosing the problems of humanity.
That may be true.
Yes, I agree, just wanted to get a discussion going with my limited knowledge of personalities :) and interactions like that get me thinking.
Too bad I’m a type S personality.
Super?
No, not at all. And I say this as someone who is the exact opposite. Type... uh, z personality (Type-Z, as in zzz...).
It's just that well adjusted type-a's don't really stand out much. They might be a little on the nit-picky side of getting things right, known for showing up a few minutes early, have goals they target and work toward. Maybe they stress a little more than most when things don't line up but over all, they're the ones who are starting normal businesses, putting in the extra hours, etc.
You need these people in society because they keep things moving and the wheels from falling off. They're the ones that actually care enough to do it right.
And some people are just wired for high intensity situations, do well in them, and that is reflected in their lifestyles.
But those with unresolved personal issues stand out a lot more, like the guy in your example. Whether it's from performance conditional love from the parents as a child, some kind of mania, or what have you, they are more extreme. Ironically, they often do become very successful and it then becomes even harder to treat them because their success is reinforcing their unhealthy habits.
Conversely, in non type-A types, their dysfunction is often much harder to see. That's your perfectly average coworker who seems fine when they leave for the day but goes home and cries in bed until they fall asleep.