The difference between arrogance and self-confidence is the insecurity level of the other person.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

Let's say I'm looking at this overly self-confident person. And because I'm not able to summon that level of self-confidence, it's not making me feel good about myself looking at this person so self-confident.

So I want to justify to myself as to why that level of self-confidence is not warranted, and I'm going to classify that as arrogance so I don't have to feel bad about myself for not being that self-confident.

It’s not the other person, it’s my insecurity.

However, this explanation does not address the nuances.

So let's get into the nuances.

There's a thin line between arrogance and self-confidence.

Fundamentally, it's all self-confidence, but there is a certain category of being self-confident which can be classified as arrogance.

There are 4 categories of self-confidence. Let’s look at them one by one.

Rational self-confidence + no putting others down

Rational self-confidence means that you have the knowledge or the skill about which you are confident.

It may be overconfidence. That's fine.

As long as it's warranted, as long as it's based on actual knowledge or skill about which you are confident, it cannot be arrogance.

It does not matter how it looks to other people.

If other people around you are insecure about themselves like I described before, they might look at this as arrogance but you know that your self-confidence is warranted.

Irrational self-confidence + no putting others down

Here you don't have the skill or the knowledge about which you are overly confident.

But if you are not putting other people down, then it's a good thing to have irrational self-confidence because people with irrational self-confidence are more likely to succeed in life.

And it also works as far as attracting women is concerned because women like men who are self-confident, even overconfident, even irrationally self-confident. Women like such men.

So it's not a negative quality as long as you're not putting other people down.

Rational self-confidence + putting others down

This category is about rational self-confidence with the tendency to put other people down and insult other people.

Look at Andrew Tate.

Andrew Tate always insults people. Puts other people down.

But he is a great speaker and a great thinker. He has a lot of knowledge. He is very successful.

So it's rational self-confidence. It is warranted.

He has the skills. He has the knowledge about which he is confident, but he is at the same time putting other people down.

Would we call it arrogance?

I don't want to call it arrogance.

It's just my personal view. I won't call it arrogance even though that person is putting other people down, because his confidence is warranted, he has the goods.

Irrational self-confidence + putting others down

The last category is irrational self-confidence and the tendency to put other people down.

I think this is the category that can be classified as arrogance because you don’t have the goods, your self-confidence is not warranted, you don't have the knowledge or the skills about which you're confident; and on top of that, you have the audacity to put other people down.

That is arrogance.