non-tech related rant:

but something I've realized...

When we were younger, we were taught to treat people how we want to be treated.

As I've gotten older, it's now become
treat people how they treat you.

(btw the tags dont need a #)

@PonySlaystation good to know, I didn't manually add those. i suppose that's what happens when you use type in the section titled "tags"

Do you mean "now" as in "as I age" or "in 2022 compared to the past"?

Basic tenet of most religions (golden rule). I never practiced or believed, but always aknowledged the value of (in my case Christian) religious stories. hope they carry the same weight for generations to come.

Then again, in some situations you can only be either the abuser or the abused/loser (ex: if everyone takes advantage of the system but you don't, your contributions indirectly make up for the missing ones (=are abused))

From a game theory point of view, the optimum strategy is tit for tat with a small front-up credit:

You get cooperation from those who cooperate unconditionally as well as from those who are like you - but you avoid losses from the rippers.

The small losses that you do get from rippers due to the small credit are more than made up by the cooperation you get from those who are like you.

You could profit more from ripping of the unconditional cooperators, but since you can't tell them from those like you, you'd lose more from their retribution.

@webketje "now" as in "as I age", yes