I ran across an article the other day that baldly stated that the survival instinct is not the strongest and most universal instinct. Creating value is.

Surprising on the face of it, but the more I thought of it, the more I had to admit that there’s something to it. Conventional wisdom (which may actually be right in this case) says that many men don’t live very long after retirement, no matter how healthy they are before it, but that women don’t seem to have that problem. I’ve heard it speculated that that may be due to the fact that most men’s self-worth and self-image is tied up in their work, whereas with most women it’s more their connections to others.

I can only think of three people I know that I consider selfish (as in, they’re reluctant to help even family or close friends if it would cause them even minor effort or discomfort), and all three of those have chronic health issues. An interesting potential correlation, but not enough to draw any firm conclusions on, especially as the health issues may well be the cause of the selfishness in at least one case. I wonder if scientists have ever explored that? A quick search didn’t turn up anything.