[bendotero]

But this is such a false dichotomy. The daily choice is not between providing for your children or being a jerk to your fellow man. There is a balance that ought to be struck between not caring about what other people think of you and caring deeply about how we treat other people.

[vkou]

It's only a false dichotomy, in the sense that it was presented by Brooks.

Nothing about chasing resume skills precludes you from being a decent human being. But there's also nothing shocking about people focusing on employable values, early in their lives.

[coldtea]

>The daily choice is not between providing for your children or being a jerk to your fellow man.

You'd be surprised. People think so because we rationalize all kinds of bad behavior (e.g. not speaking up when a colleague was wrongly fired or abused, or working for a company that runs sweatshops, or does all kind of damage). As long as they don't do it directly (and just "follow orders" or "doing their job") they think it's OK.

But it's still a daily choice, and the other option to being principled is often not putting food on the table.