One thing which took me almost forty years of life to fully digest is just how self-centered people are, to the point of being "on the take". I've always been of the Japanese businessman attitude I've read about: focus on an equitable deal for both sides of the contract. But most people are not wired like that.

Take for example Creepy Joe going around for years saying that "China is our friend", "We should help lift them up", only for 2020 to reveal that he had extensive "pay to play" ties there selling his political influence. I've realized over time that this kind of behavior is so widespread that you veritably can't take anything anyone says at face value.

As it turns out, this happens in the video game industry too: your favorite streamer has been playing some game, presumably because they like it, only for you to find out later that they were being paid to do so by a giant corporation. Think an artist makes character designs which fulfill their own artistic vision? Guess again: the marketing and HR departments write the design documents, which is how you wind up with "Gears Tactics" or "The Outer Worlds".