I really loved reading this, it resonated quite deeply. I've felt much the same, though for me the biggest thing that made me misanthropic was reading about EA and all the implied ways that most people are arguably monstrous by omission and conformity. After that, reading Nietzsche didn't make it much worse.
In recent years I've been feeling somewhat less misanthropic, so wanted to quickly say a bit about how that's happened, in case it's useful. Probably the biggest influence was reading Joseph Henrich's The Secret of Our Success. The core thesis of the book might be summarized as arguing that humans are mostly implementing an algorithm that isn't really "observe evidence, build... (read more)
I really loved reading this, it resonated quite deeply. I've felt much the same, though for me the biggest thing that made me misanthropic was reading about EA and all the implied ways that most people are arguably monstrous by omission and conformity. After that, reading Nietzsche didn't make it much worse.
In recent years I've been feeling somewhat less misanthropic, so wanted to quickly say a bit about how that's happened, in case it's useful. Probably the biggest influence was reading Joseph Henrich's The Secret of Our Success. The core thesis of the book might be summarized as arguing that humans are mostly implementing an algorithm that isn't really "observe evidence, build... (read more)