Am I arrogant?

The short answer is, Yes. I am an arrogant sumbitch. Reading through Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in high school, some of the quotes that I liked the best were those like:

Qualis artifex pereo - Nero
L'Etat, c'est moi - Louis XIV

I think that there is something insidious about false modesty and false humility - like Lucifer pretending to be a lowly serpent. I have a healthy respect for brashness and arrogance, with one important caveat: it must be based on substance.

What I detest is people pretending that they are good at something that they are merely competent or mediocre in. If I had any entrepreneurial drive or ambition beyond supplying certain basic comforts, I would probably have been blogging about my next business venture instead of my chowing down on some curry curry due to being broke.

I understand, with all the requisite humility, that I am still very much in my apprenticeship in the craft I try to be superlative at. But damn if I am going to pretend that I am at the level of some shmuck trying to put together his first short story or poem because some teeny-bopper broke his fucking heart. Did it at eighteen, graduated, moved on, got the t-shirt.

In my humble defense, I am mostly not the arrogant prick. (Cue the violin). I am usually the guy in the corner in a plain jeans and t-shirt, scribbling on a piece of paper and using his pen like a cigarette. And if you don't believe that, fuck off.