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  "path": "/blog/that-useless-sense-of-superiority/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-05T03:25:17.000Z",
  "site": "https://joelchrono.xyz",
  "tags": [
    "100DaysToOffload",
    "Reply to this post via email](mailto:me@joelchrono.xyz?subject=That useless sense of superiority) | [Reply on Fediverse"
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  "textContent": "A few days ago my family went to the supermarket, and I saw someone that had been an intern with me, in that same big company in my small town that I now work on. He was working as a cashier now.\n\nAs an introvert in real life—hard to believe I know—I tend to avoid interacting with people, even those that I should be familiar with.\n\nIf I see friends from work, I won’t engage with them unless we actually face each other and there’s no way around it. If I see friends from University, I will not talk with them—unless she was a crush and we somehow happen to sit together in the bus, maybe I’ll say hi, but that only has happened twice so far. Otherwise I’ll probably ignore.\n\nHowever, this situation was a little different, because now there is a certain social imbalance that I had never felt before. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not a real thing, I know that we are equal, I know status based on the work you do is as vain as it gets.\n\nAnd yet, I couldn’t help it. This person studied a similar career as me, could probably land a job similar to me, and yet he’s a cashier.\n\nThat is of course, absolutely fine, absolutely great for anybody. Who knows what other factors are at play here, maybe it’s only temporary, or maybe he’s still doing a Master’s degree and just needs some extra income and will surpass me eventually. Or maybe he just enjoys it. I don’t know.\n\nBut the truth of the matter is that, at least for a second. I felt bad for him. I just couldn’t look at him in the eye, I didn’t say Hi, as if I didn’t know him. I didn’t even bring it up to my parents, and I always say “oh that person works with me!” or “they were a classmate of mine!”\n\nAnd then I felt bad about feeling bad, that I looked down on him like that. I guess a feeling of superiority got to me, the fact that I’m closer to some arbitrary ideal than them. A part of me wants to think I just felt bad not because he was lesser, but because this world is just kind of unfair. But well, I know part of me thought that, and it was wrong, or at least it felt wrong to me.\n\nOr who knows, maybe it was actually insecurity of mine, mabye I felt a sort of imposter syndrome, for being in a better place because all of my circumstances just lined up better, even if he could do just as good a job as me. No idea at this point.\n\nMaybe the other person didn’t even recognize me either, maybe they were happily focused on work and doing their thing. Maybe I just felt bad for being impolite and I am trying to justify myself just to feel better about it somehow.\n\nTo make matters more ridiculous. the reason I saw them was because the label on a product had a lower price than the one showing up on the screen, and they showed up to validate the price and change it. So not only did I not say a word to them because I felt bad about being in a “better position” than them, I did so while being a cheapskate who complains about a product being 2 bucks more expensive than what the label said.\n\nWhatever it is, maybe it’s no big deal, maybe they didn’t want to talk to me either, I don’t know, I am terrible when it comes to reading social interactions, I just felt like writing something about it and move on, and well, I just happen to have a place that lets me do that.\n\nThis is day 11 of #100DaysToOffload\n\nReply to this post via email](mailto:me@joelchrono.xyz?subject=That useless sense of superiority) | [Reply on Fediverse",
  "title": "That useless sense of superiority",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-05T03:25:17.000Z"
}