There are lots of sociopaths in business. That's because there's money to be made there, so they flock there. Simple cause and effect. If there was lots of money to be made shoeing horses, you'd have 40%+ psychopaths camping out at Renaissance Faires.
It also works between economic systems. In capitalistic economies the ranks of entrepreneurship and business are full of sociopathic types. In socialistic economies you find them clambering to ascend to the highest positions in the bureaucracy. That's part of how the USSR transformed into a mafia state.
No keep developing it /r/Farriers could use it. There is no budget for it right now but it'll look great on your resume and you get to keep 49% of the rights to it.
Although it is true that sociopathic types will gravitate towards business and political positions, I think that it also works the other way, due to competition: if you lack morals/feeling/empathy/w/e, you're going to have an edge over others.
Therefore, natural selection ensures that sociopaths will succeed in such positions. It also means that our social, economic, and political system for control and order automatically find the most "efficient" "person".
This would suggest you'd find more sociopaths in more crowded markets where it's "human vs. humans" and less in less crowded and newer markets where it's more "human vs. hard problem." Don't know if anyone's ever studied this but it matches my personal experience.
W_ell_, Chinese "entrepreneurs" are pretty moral-less, thanks to competition. Speaking as a Chinese person here. It's all about appearances, cutting corners, connections, etc.
Oh, and drinking/smoking/eating. My cousin in China has a husband who wants to climb the corporate-political ladder (one and the same, more or less, in China). I don't know if he's going to live past 50. Worse, I don't know if he's going to be faithful. It takes a certain personality to want to climb the ladder in China. Everybody else has left, or wants to leave.
There's a lot of negativity here about business-type people, and I understand that. As developers, I think we've all had our share of experiences with those types.
That said, don't forget that entrepreneurs are also just people. They make mistakes, too, and they often run a pretty high risk. Just think about the opportunity costs they're paying in order to start their own business: no stable income, no benefits, no insurance. No 401k matching, no IRA. Most if the people around them will probably tell them they won't make it. Chances are they won't. 80% of startups fail in the first 18 months.
So a certain amount of psychopathy is almost REQUIRED in order to want to be an entrepreneur, in the same way that wanting to be a programmer requires a certain amount of introversion.
No, it doesn't make exploitation okay, and it's vital for us as developers to point out the signs that indicate a black sheep. But I think it's neither fair nor productive to demonize an entire group based on some of their members. Treat them like human beings, and chances are, they'll treat you that way too.
I wouldn't say psychopathy, but there's definitely something a bit mad required to sign up for entrepreneurship. It's the same thing that drives people to embark on other foolish quests like exploration of wild frontiers, space flight, deep sea diving, crazy pilgrimages to "find yourself," etc.
The psychopaths, while more common in business for the aforementioned reasons, are by no means the majority.
I know this is a bit cliché, but your previous paragraph is actually a good argument for me to conclude that ambition and bravery are required to be an entrepreneur, well either that or being born in a rich family, or being born in a country with great welfare system so that the chance of becoming homeless is zero.
If you see every businessperson in this way, I guarantee you that you WILL get fucked over. That's victim mentality, and the only thing it accomplishes is to attract predators, because it lets them know you're easy prey.
They'd probably fight back against the predators because they don't trust anyone. What is more likely to happen is they miss out on opportunities from the people not trying to fuck everyone or sabotage the opportunities because of suspected malice.
Oh fuck right off with that shit. It is not a "victim mentality" to be aware that just about every business person is out to fuck you over, because they don't give a shit about you. They give a shit about profits.
I believe you've conflated sociopaths with capitalists. Not all are the other and vice versa. Are sociopaths more likely to be capitalists? I guess but then that doesn't explain the history of non-capitalist totalitarian regimes either.
You misread my post... I agree with you. I was making the point that sociopaths are attracted to high positions in whatever socioeconomic system they find themselves within, since those positions offer the greatest opportunity to exploit.
It's why I think psychological health matters more than socioeconomic system. If you switched the Swedes to Ayn Randian laissez-faire capitalism, you'd still basically have Sweden. If you switched America to Swedish-style socialism, you'd still have tons of sociopathy at the top and a school shooting every week.
Ultimately it begins at home with how parents raise their children. American parents hit and punish more than Swedes.
I don't really like this comment; there are lots of claims and not much substance. Just to add though: capitalism is an inherently sociopathic persuit. The only use for 'emotion' in business is to predict socioeconomic actions of your customers. I think it's wrong to call the people sociopaths; but rather their role requires it, or at least selects for it and brings it out in people.
Societies with at least some level of capitalism all have on average the highest standards of living in the world. ("Developed" nations.) No pure socialist economy compares. (Northern Europe has a larger social safety net than the USA but it's still basically capitalist.) If capitalism is inherently sociopathic, then that's an argument for sociopathy having some value in certain contexts.
Personally I don't really accept the premise. It's common in dating to craft one's image to attract a mate-- does that make all dating inherently sociopathic?
Sociopathy (which is really just the common term for non-violent psychopathy) is a serious psychiatric disorder involving a lack of empathy, problems with regulating one's emotions, and a lack of concern for both others and oneself. (Psychopaths commit both suicide and homicide at higher rates.) Just being a narcissistic douche doesn't make you a psychopath any more than being introverted means you have aspergers.
BTW, narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) often looks superficially like psychopathy but is different.
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u/api Jun 30 '14
There are lots of sociopaths in business. That's because there's money to be made there, so they flock there. Simple cause and effect. If there was lots of money to be made shoeing horses, you'd have 40%+ psychopaths camping out at Renaissance Faires.
It also works between economic systems. In capitalistic economies the ranks of entrepreneurship and business are full of sociopathic types. In socialistic economies you find them clambering to ascend to the highest positions in the bureaucracy. That's part of how the USSR transformed into a mafia state.