Comparison between Compassion and Self Centeredness based on barbara lazear aschers essay on homelessness and david foster wallaces essay This is water. Discuss David foster Wallace’s contention that we have a default setting of selfcenteredness and reconcile it with the idea of compassion and the fact that we are social animals. What in your view is the definitive human trait; self centeredness or compassion? Compare and contrast and then elaborate on how it doesn’t matter whether someone is doing a compassionate act for self centered reasons as long as others can profit from it.