> I read a comment a few years ago that no-one thinks of themselves as a bad person. To yourself, you are always okay.
From my focus on emotions and conflict over the last 10 years, I'd say many people actually think they're bad people (or at least that they might be). I think one of the hardest things is to defend our own good intentions and I've found that as I get better at doing it for myself, I tend to also defend the good intentions of others.
I wonder if it's not a bit like the Dunning-Kruger effect. The good people around us struggle thinking that they're bad, while the bad people blithely go around thinking they're good.
That is a really interesting thought. Thank you. Now that you mention it, I'm thinking that having a conscience means getting "false alarms" sometimes. One way some people choose to prevent that is to disable the alarm instead of fixing the actual problem. I'm sure anyone who has worked in tech for any amount of time has seen the literal form of that.
From my focus on emotions and conflict over the last 10 years, I'd say many people actually think they're bad people (or at least that they might be). I think one of the hardest things is to defend our own good intentions and I've found that as I get better at doing it for myself, I tend to also defend the good intentions of others.