I’ll echo a sentiment above. Self-assuredness is being more skilled or knowledgable than others and knowing it. Arrogance is thinking that because you are more skilled or knowledgable that you are a better human being than others.
Being a braggart falls in between these somehow, usually an insecure person who has to make sure everyone knows their value because they are so unsure of it themselves.
I had a divorce lawyer who later fixed my much neglected teeth. The guy had gone to Harvard Law and Hardvard Dental Schools at the same freaking time. Graduated from both too.
Guy was the most arrogant person I’ve ever met and I never liked his personality. But he was a good lawyer and a damn good dentist.
This thread reminds me of a recent 30 Rock episode in which Liz is dreading her high school reunion. Of course, she ends up going anyway, and discovers that everyone hated her not because of her nerdiness, but because her sarcastic wit (her defense mechanism for handling her own self-consciousness) made her an asshole.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/30_rock/reunion_2.php
In normal society, arrogance is a big hindrance, but I do think that the rules are a bit different in medicine (moreso in TV than real life, but even in real life).
In medicine, if you screw up and kill someone, nobody cares if you’re a nice person who is genuinely sorry about it. If you make good decisions that help the patient live, nobody cares if you’re an asshole who thinks you’re God’s gift to sick people. The results of your patient care are what matter.
I think that’s the way it ought to be.
You have to have an awful lot of confidence in yourself to take responsibility for other people’s lives in the first place. Someone who is indecisive or questions themselves too much won’t be very effective. It isn’t surprising that, in developing confidence, some people overshoot things a bit and become arrogant about it.
However, I think a lot of times, doctors get a reputation for being “arrogant” when it’s not really that they are arrogant, just that they have high standards for both themselves and for other people (I’ve seen doctors yell at nurses for screwing something up - not because the doc was a jerk, but because they didn’t want the patient to suffer because of the screw-up).
One of the best surgeons I ever worked with as a medical student was really kind of a jerk. He would ask us students questions that were nearly impossible to answer, then personally insult us for not being able to come up with the right answer. It wasn’t very nice, but you better believe the risk of being ridiculed was effective at “motivating” us to work hard and be at our best. He was a perfectionist who also was always at his best too. I learned a lot from him and really respect him.
If I were sick, I’d want a doctor like that rather than someone “nice” who didn’t know what they were doing. 
I believe the line is where one’s confidence affects one’s attitude towards others.
I’m fine with confidence as long as it’s self-contained. Being humble is still better.
I’m surprised no one has stabbed him yet.
Arrogance is a funny thing. If you check out thisthread, it would appear that simply going to Harvard or some similar elite university is by itself enough to appear arrogant. Or people who go to those schools think that it does, which is pretty arrogant.
I think if you are very good and competant at your job, it is hard not to appear arrogant. Especially around people who are relatively lazy or incompetant.
If you are really at a much higher level than the people around you, you get tired of having to “dumb it down”. That can lead to resentment or contempt which manifests itself as perceived “arrogance”.
True arrogance, IMHO, is when you believe in your own “goods” in spite of established practice, common sense or all evidence to the contrary. For example, not checking your work or performing basic due dilligence because you don’t think you have to. That’s a dangerous kind of arrogance. House gets to flaunt medical procedure because he is always right in TV Land. Well, he better be, because when he fucks up, he’s going to get royally screwed.
There’s another side to the idea that arrogance is a cover for incompetence ,though. There’s also the side of throwing the accusation of arrogance around. I think this is done often too, to mask the accuser’s own incompetence or rather the resentment of the competence/confidence of others. Sometimes it’s done by a whole group to ward of unwelcome alternative attitudes.
Very often a person with healthy boundaries is deemed arrogant by a group of disfunctionals. Some mysogonist men will call any woman who doesn’t fit his low image of women an arrogant bitch, which enables his little group to hang on to their negative stereotype, mysogonist women police other women by making accusations of arrogance, minorities are called uppity etc.
So in a discussion like this that links what arrogance is to a fictional character that viewers are meant to see as a flawed person, arrogance is clear and we get to agree it’s a bad character flaw. In real life, it’s worth taking the label seriously at times, with a grain of salt at other times, and sometimes as a compliment.
This is what I was going to say, but phrased a bit differently: Confidence is belief in the superiority of one’s skills and abilities. Arrogance is a belief that the superiority of one’s skills and abilities makes one a better and/or more valuable human being. The two qualities may or may not coincide in a single individual.
This.
There is a very strong undercurrent in the Western mind that if things are going well for you or you’re better at doing something, you are a better human being than those who perhaps don’t do as well or are not as well off.
another view:
“Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.” —Frank Lloyd Wright
This is why I think Muhammad Ali is not a great example, at least not many of the clips I see all the time. I once told my friend he’d be greater if he didn’t go around saying, “I’m the greatest!”
Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, is a better example. He’s not super, super humble, but he’s pretty humble without denying his skill.
I would say so. We have many brilliant doctors here who are complete tools. Their brilliance doesn’t reduce or deflect their tool-ness.
Arrogance isn’t a measure of skill, it’s a character trait, and people might have to put up with you but it doesn’t mean that they like you.
I am with you on the latter part, but disagree with confidence having anything to do with believe in superiority of skills and abilities. If one feels their skills are average or even below average compared to others, but good enough to handle a certain activity or situation, you can still be confident. Most things in life simply do not require superior skills and abilities, good enough will do.
We’re going to be issuing an RFP this summer when a certain service contract comes up for renewal. Our current contractor does an excellent job, yet, if there are any bids that are reasonably competitive, I will go with someone else.
Why? Because this contractor’s prime tech guy, who is phenomenally, indeed, awesomely competent, is such an asshole that I just plain do not want to do business with these guys any more.
There is another guy (not associated with the contractor in the above anecdote) who is the only guy in the entire state who knows how a certain very critical process works. His last name starts with “Dick”, and he is a flaming jackass. Everyone puts up with him when they need him, but he is universally known as “Freddy* the Dick”.
So, no, arrogance is not OK, even if you can back it up.
What a bizarre combination. I’m assuming he had separate offices.
I’d agree with others who have said confidence in one’s abilities is good; arrogance about one’s abilities is not okay.
I noticed others had added comments/examples about celebrities. One long-remembered comment about Burton Cummings (lead singer of the Guess Who in late 60’s tp mid 70’s who, among other songs, were the originators of American Woman). A reviewer said about Cummings after having seen him in concert in the mid-80s, “he’s nearly as good as he thinks he is”.
IMO the problem is even the good and arrogant ones arent that good ALL the time.
And when arrogance really bites you in the ass is when the arrogant meet up with situation they “arent used too” or are likely to misjudge.
A less arrogant person always has it in their mind that they just might not be right this time and is willing to think a bit before leaping.
The arrogant plow straight on. Of course when they screw up, they usually just shrug and move on like nothing happened, because if they couldnt get it right, nobody could :rolleyes:
What I dislike even more is the meme that you have to be arrogant to be good. Sure, if you have a dangrous job like a fighter pilot or fireman, you need enough arrogance that you arent so scared you can’t do the job.
If you are a high powered businessman, you need enough confidence/arrogance that you can sleep most nights.
I don’t think House’s problem is just that he’s arrogant. It’s that he also uses the fact that he’s so good as an excuse for why it should be okay to exploit and take advantage of his friends and just be a general asshole to everyone. It’s one thing to be super confident in your abilities, but I don’t think you get the right to be mean to someone just because you’re good at what you do.
Arrogance is confidence on speed.
Arrogance is a character defect, humility is a character asset. One does well to have self confidence and self respect and a sense of self esteem. People who actually possess those qualities are generally NOT arrogant. They experience gratitude, not entitlement, perspective, not grandiosity and they connect with others rather than self obsession.
I disagree. I personally see arrogance just as another coping mechanism to deal with what ultimately amounts to feelings of insecurity and inferiority.