Comment by andyantti on The curse of identity · 2011-11-19T09:27:06.865Z · LW · GW

Humans are social animals. We try rationalize our motives based on what we want and how we can make it look outside. So far we even lie to ourselves to reach the middle ground.

For example how many people actually say they work hard because they are greedy? No, you wont find such people explaining their motives. Instead they say they are hard working, want to excel and are gifted what they do. Why couldn't you be medicore person that is greedy and just works very hard to get loads of money?

It isn't as comforting though and society many times also rewards if we explain our motives to bit better.