"Sample sizes," chirps Isabella.

"Hm?"

"Your stepmother's one person, so she's a terrible source from which to draw an opinion of the whole species, no?"

"Yes, that's true. If it weren't, misanthropy wouldn't be a flaw." 

"I wouldn't blame you for it if you had met seven hundred people and by some astounding coincidence all of them sucked!"

"The problem is that since I don't enjoy being around people who don't interest me it might be difficult to notice ways in which people don't suck if my twin shared my flaws instead of complementing them." 

"That makes sense. So you have a selection problem, your sample is mostly people who inflict themselves on you despite your disinterest!"

"Broadly accurate. There are other factors, too--I don't only judge based on the people I meet, for example, and since sensationalism sells it's often easier to hear about crimes and other human-caused disasters than, say, the Norman Borlaugs of the world, if you aren't motivated to go looking." 

"How great is Norman Borlaug, though."

"I don't know if I would find him personally interesting but I certainly appreciate him on an abstract level! There's also the fact that harm is usually easier than good, so if the bad people are doing much more bad than the good people are doing good that doesn't mean the bad people are worse than the good people are good, which is something I might not have thought to factor in if Jaromira hadn't pointed it out." 

"If I detect misanthropic tendencies in myself I remind myself that e.g. Norman Borlaug is principally admirable because he didn't decide people sucked too much to deserve adequate agricultural yields."

"That's a very good point!"

"Thank you!"

"The fact of the matter is that I'm naively more inclined to spend my time studying other things than myself--not that introspection isn't important, but there are just so many fascinating things to learn about." 

"You are the tool you use to learn those things."

"Perhaps if I were less externally motivated to introspect I would run into a point where I was the bottleneck and quickly become intrinsically motivated." 

"Ha, okay. I like introspecting. Keeps the gears oiled."

"I like it too, but I would probably like it less if it took a form other than narrating my internal monologue to my sister and listening to her commentary, supplemented with writing things down when she's not there so I can recount them later. It's so useful to get another perspective." 

"I have an all-writing model. Xander can be a sounding board but he's not really good for this particular purpose, alas."

"Jaromira's great for it--it's one of the extensions of her liking-people thing, I think, is that she really appreciates being in a position to--really get into the gears of one? I think I would probably be her favorite regardless but it doesn't hurt." 

"Awwww!"

"She'd be a terrible psychiatrist, though, always getting too personally invested in her patients. It's--remarkable how much I love it about her, I think, given that it's a trait I don't especially want to cultivate myself. Something about the--integrity of it? It's not a good way for everyone to be, but it's a very good way for her to be, and she really commits to it." 

"How old are you guys?"

"Fourteen." 

"We turned fifteen in September. It -"

"Hey!" calls Mercedes, swooping up to them. "Time to land!"

"Coming!" says Isabella, more polite than earnest, and she banks.