And no, I have no ancestors that are alike Stalin in any way

You would tell a person you helped "I'm so proud of myself for your success"

Sounds narcissistic af

I would not tell them anything, I would evaluate my own actions and ask myself if I can do better

Individualism is egotism

lol

So you would just say nothing

But you'd think it

Probably not, unless they deserve a praise

"I'm so proud, I helped this guy have success, that's so awesome on my part"

If I did good job I should be proud

And if a person who followed my advice did a good job I would respect them for it

But you wouldn't say it because you realize it sounds egocentric af

No, I would not say it cause I usually dont care

You don't care to do what?

I dont care enough to tell people my opinion on a thing that isnt particulary relevant to me

On the other hand, if my intern does a good job learning there's 2 things going on here.
1. I do good job teaching
2. He does good job learning

I dont feel I can claim pride for his ability to learn, only to my ability to teach

It's funny to me cause

Most people, whether they believe to be partly responsible for someone's success or not, when they don't say that out loud, it's because they know it's just a stupid thing to say and it can hurt the relationship

That's why they don't say it, because they don't wanna take away from that person's emotional high

Which is kind of a selfless act of course, parents do this all the time

Selflessness is immoral

It's not selfless

It's a selfless act, it's not "being selfless"

It's a kind of socially evolved behavior

We learn this

Because the backlash from deviating from it causes us harm, for example lost friends

So it's actually selfish in a way

But also selfless

Things can be both

It's a tradeoff basically

That's what societies do

I dont operate like that. WHen I have interns, which I do a lot, I help them understand, give them tasks and then tell them clearly what mistakes were made

Yeah but you don't steal their thunder

I dont get what you mean by that

When they feel successful, you let them have their moment, and you don't steal it for yourself, by saying something stupid like "I did that, I taught you, I'm awesome"

But I didnt do that

Unless you say it jokingly perhaps

I just helped them understand and they did something good

sometimes they do better than I do