> When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems.
> The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in my opinion, has ruined more good scientists than any institution has created, judged by what they did before they came and judged by what they did after. Not that they weren't good afterwards, but they were superb before they got there and were only good afterwards.
Agreed. Anything else is a waste of time, and usually leaves me with more questions than answers.
At the same time, the quick and efficient version can still be presented in a positive - or at least nonnegative - way, which I think OP mentions: "callous indifference" is indistinguishable from "mean", for many people, which makes it difficult to work together.
> "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them."
The problem with this version is that it requires interpretation of another person's intentions and attitude - something we're exceptionally bad at and which is causing a lot of drama simply through misinterpretation.
The version that says "Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself." does not have this problem. Furthermore it scales better because you have to perform the underlying calculation only once as opposed to once per encounter. I get that this approach does not provide any guidance for handling abusive people, but I would argue they can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In all other cases, treating people like you would like to be treated should be a reasonable default.
