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Comment by HumanDrivenDev | Hacker News Reader

> I say masks, because unlike many people I seem to meet, I do not have any enthusiasm for consumption, decadence and self-gratification.

You sound insufferable. It's fine not to have in common with people, but pretending you can't get along with others because of their "consumption, decadence, and self-gratification" sounds like nothing more than an excuse for poor social skills.

Every day I break bread with people I have almost nothing in common with, and still manage to have interesting and pleasant conversations. I don't feel the need to collapse into a ball of self-righteous contempt.

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I am insufferable. Were I not insufferable to people like yourself, for one reason or another, I would not need to wear masks.

I have social skills, and a tongue of only the finest sterling silver, so I need no excuse for a lack of such things. I just wanted to speak frankly about how much I loathe socialising with people, because I find them essentially hollow and/or self-interested.

Any given person may see me as both hollow and self-interested from their perspective, but this is irrelevant to the point I'm making. I see no reason to want to talk to people who are not really listening, so I try to avoid it.

There are times when it cannot be avoided, but that's the price one pays to earn money, which is in turn required to pay live for a home with electricity and an internet connection. I suppose I could just become a bum, drifting between coffee shops with WiFi, but then where would I sleep? Pretty sure I'd have to socialise more if I were to go down that route anyway.

Also, if I 'collapsed into a ball of self-righteous contempt', I'm pretty sure I would be saying 'I cannot socialise' not 'I hate socialising'. Just a minor detail about your slightly rude reply, it doesn't matter that much.

This thing you describe comes from internal resistance (may also be called self-reactive filtering) where environment -say, groups of people that you may have some rigid bindings with,(like workplace)- display just the slightest (very toned-down) air of viscious but very real and directed hostility. It's the artifice that bothers you, but this stuff goes deeper. You can fix that by building friendships with open (foolish) people, you just need to find some good ones. Friendships do take some effort, though.

> Every day I break bread with people I have almost nothing in common with, and still manage to have interesting and pleasant conversations.

I'd prefer to eat my lunch alone and read to be honest.

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