[gnode]

I wonder if the underlying reason for this emotional response is guilt which goes hand-in-hand with altruism. In the case of the Santa and the homeless man, the Santa didn't want to give the man $5, but did so presumably out of guilt, then felt angry. In the case of the author getting angry about low-value questions, I wonder if that's because of a guilty feeling that they must answer. Personally, I can't really empathise with the author's anger, yet I'm arguably less generous than them; I don't feel much drive to spend my free time on Stack Overflow et al. answering stangers' questions.

[blub]

The author is completely missing the point of his own feelings: his unconscious mind is telling him to stop wasting time answering questions and do something more useful.

But of course, the conscious mind knows better, one must behave nicely, be zen, suppress their feelings, etc. And 10 years later you're visiting a psychologist to deal with your burn out.

[s_m_t]

I don't even care if this is arm chair psychology, from a literary standpoint this really ties the piece together. The Santa example doesn't make much sense otherwise.