Boastfulness- why does it annoy me?

[KindergartenKop]

Does anyone else find boastfulness really annoying? A facebook friend described herself as a 'polymath' in one of her posts recently and it really wound me up because she isn't, she's just got access to wikipedia. It makes me unreasonably angry and for some reason a bit jealous! Not brave enough for aibu but am I? Why do I feel like this? How do I stop?

I'd agree that I need to blow my own trumpet more often.

But describing yourself as a polymath is just insane. The internet tells me that examples of polymaths include Benjamin Franklin, Da Vinci, Archimedes, Coleridge, Bertrand Russell etc etc!

@IthinkIm

What's a poly math?

A polymath is someone who has a wide ranging knowledge and is able to make connections between disparate areas. Generally when thinking of polymaths people think about people like Leonardo da Vinci who excelled at several areas.

It isincreasingly difficult to be a true polymath due to the increasing volume of knowledge our society has. The last polymath is apparently considered to be this bloke so the OP's friend is claiming to be in some illustrious company.

British people can’t tolerate anyone saying anything remotely positive about themselves

Not sure I entirely agree with this. I think British people (on the whole) prefer modesty, so anything that appears immodest, is seen as bragging/showing off, which on SM platforms generally is!

Personally, I am so impressed with people who are modest/humble about their achievements, they aren't hiding them, but don't feel the need for everyone to know how good they are IYSWIM.

Oh God yes. I have a friend like that and I just don't get it at all. Why would you need to? I think they must feel inadequate in some way.

I've always assumed people who boast have rock bottom self-esteem. They boast to try and boost themselves, to convince themselves they are good at something. I've been guilty of bad boasting in the past and it always coincides with deep depressive episodes which I try to climb out of by telling myself: 'you're not that bad. At least you XYZ' But it comes over to others as ' Me? I'm mahvellous. I did XYZ.' When I'm happy and confident, I'm much more self-deprecating. All the deeply confident people I know are modest too.

It's a bit like declaring yourself a genius. Not really the done thing . Lacking in self awareness.

Particularly bad as Polymath is a word nearly always associated with men. Women only ever all-rounders at best!

It annoys me and I want to get to the bottom of why.

friends posting about their kids 100% exam results

or just going on and on about how amazing their kids are.

every holiday

every achievement

I just unfollow them

One of my colleagues is extremely boastful. In any given conversation she will always, always have something bigger/better/more exciting to boast about.

Currently we are being subjected to her September trip to Australia for 8 weeks, each and every time the word holiday comes up in conversation. If one of us is busy, she’s busier, when someone’s son was representing the school in a cross country competition her (grown up) son was an amazing boxer - it’s never ending.

It’s now got to the stage that nobody actually chats in Team Meetings because it will just open up an hour of her holding court and boasting.

She gets on my tits!

I'm the same OP
Even at interview I feel uncomfortable with self promotion. So others promoting themselves so easily when they are perhaps a little better than average at something It triggers me that this might work for them.

Yes, this is what rankles, that they fool some people. Those people may not have noticed my hard work or mastery of task but they just take somebody claiming to be excellent at face value.
Also to be honest, self promotion doesn't seem to work for me.
At interview I was using an example of something I'd done to demonstrate a competency and the interviewer said, "did you do that?
I didnt get through the interview.

But even when it's the truth, people don't seem to believe my "promotion"

People boast because they know that boasting is the one thing that they are better at than almost anybody else.