I realize that the wording of this could be off-putting. These terms were chosen to exemplify a way of thinking, and not so much to get you or anyone else to make a character judgement. I will try to clarify what I meant here so this angle can be considered for the sake of the discussion…
In a traditional sense, we refer to Arrogant or Egotistical in terms of a person’s personality. If you think about in this context, the “boiled down” definition would be…
Arrogant = “I’m right, you’re wrong…end of story.” In other words, I know what I know, and your attempts to interject new information into my knowledge of the subject are futile…
Egotistical = “I’m the best that there is and everyone should agree with me!” In other words, I believe that I am or have accomplished something great, and that that makes me somebody, but I’m not happy with feeling that way on my own… I need someone to corroborate my feelings, or validate me. If you do not validate me, I will become arrogant and validate myself…
Now take those same meanings and apply them to an individual’s thought process. We all usually display thought patterns that are one or the other…Arrogant meaning that I am so confident in what I know, that I will not seek to “prove” this knowledge any further. Egotistical meaning that I am very confident in what I know, but I feel the need to validate that knowledge any time it comes into question, or any time that knowledge could be altered by outlying factors.
Example…If you and I went to the same gym and you came up to me and asked me “How ya been man?” And then I replied, “I’ve been better. I haven’t slept in three weeks!” What is your first thought?
If you are someone who approaches the thought process arrogantly, you might think, “That’s impossible. You’d be dead if you did not sleep for 3 weeks.” If you approach more on the egotistical side, you might think. “He can’t mean that literally because he’d be dead. I need further information to clarify the his underlying meaning of this phrase, because it doesn’t jive with what I know to be true.”…
See what I mean? The terms were meant in this context to easier illustrate critical versus literal thinking. They are NOT at all meant to be in any way derogatory. There are some people who can be Arrogant or Egotistical personality wise, but on the other hand, almost everyone forms their thought process along the lines of one of these definitions. The difference is being able to suppress any outgoing emotions or actions that would put them in that category as far as their personality is concerned. I hope this makes sense?
Now to clarify the point I was trying to make concerning Arrogant vs. Egotistical when it comes to my thinking on diet…Arrogant meaning that I don’t need to verify my intake. I KNOW what I’m eating. (Which is a valid standpoint and doesn’t mean that the person is in fact arrogant). Egotistical meaning that I know what I’m eating, but I want to verify the value of these foods, if nothing more than to just prove myself right. Again, not an “egomaniac”, just more of an egotistical style of thinking in this context.
For me personally, the arrogant style of thinking does not serve me well because I know I am prone to errors in judgment when it comes to food. There are too many tiny variables that could add up to very big deviations over the course of a week. For me, as someone who is not really trying to gain or bulk, but rather keep what I have while cutting as much fat as possible, those errors can be critical.