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Comment by phkahler | Hacker News Reader

There is a lot of overlap between positive traits and narcissistic or antisocial ones. Some people have trouble distinguishing between confidence and arrogance for example. How about basic extroversion vs self promotion? OTOH some of the tactics a narcissist uses when they're in trouble are common (good?) for a company to employ when faced with bad publicity. Self promotion is a form of marketing right? It's all superficial, so I think the best we can do is train more people to see through it. Hold people accountable, don't let them blame shift, don't promote them for others accomplishments, etc... Once you've got their number, there may still be good strategic uses for these people. Just don't let them get out of control and ruin the company?

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I was also going to mention that confidence is a powerful predicter/cause of success & promotion, more so than any skills behind that confidence. Anecdotally, I've noticed people are much more successful in work & personal life when they are confident, as other people use that confidence as a shortcut for assessing actual talent & skills. Narcissism is a mix of unwavering confidence and self-assuredness that exploits this shortcut and lets people progress in life without any test of their actual abilities.

maybe it is the inverse. When you are successful in work and personal life you become confident. And they fuels more success/confidence. Basically you become more confident as and when you find more success.

Both.

Narcissists project confidence without actual success.

Experts project confidence based on proven success.

Just adding to what dsr_ is saying, narcissists project confidence without actual success because their version of reality supports their correctness.

Narcissism/NPD is a result of the mind not being able to accept information that disproves their elevated sense of self worth. Anything that proves them wrong therefore is discarded before it can be processed internally. So when they speak with confidence, its because nothing in their reality can disprove what they are saying, even if what you're saying is true to our shared reality.

to have a broken version of reality one must likely have a broken childhood, be abused etc.

It's tough to separate someone who is a narcissist from a confident person unless the person judging them is an knowledgeable in the same field.

> don't let them get out of control and ruin the company?

pretty much the line between any pleasurable activity and an addiction

i think confidence ends and arrogance begins when the party in question acts towards furthering their goals at the expense of others, instead of collaberatively helping the group

but then you get outwardly arrogant groups of internally confident people...hm

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