Agree. It's a rocky ride to attempt closer contact with a psychopath: there's nobody home, and you discover eventually that you were relating to a 3-D, Technicolour magnified mirror more than to another human being. And, at the same time, the mirror is almost painfully alive. I never saw so well my own strengths and flaws, never had to doubt even the most basic assumptions like when in a 'friendship' with such people.

Those tho, were high functioning, highly educated people. I don't think that psychopathy tells the whole story about anyone - there's more to one's personality than psychopathy or absence of, and that one shouldn't be tempted to generalise such experiences.

Yes, this idea that they are hopelessly boring strikes me as wishful thinking. Everything would be so much easier if that were truly the case.

How did you knoe they were psychopaths?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist, and before that, a very strong gut feeling. Too many things click together: the overall toxicity of a person, his desire to belittle / denigrate many people around him (a waitress in a cafe, contributors to an internet community project, a non-psychopath competitor etc.), his grandiose self-image (he literally designated himself as 'elite'), threats of violence and criminal leanings, always hogging the spotlight in social settings, "friendships" that change to enmity overnight, et cetera et cetera.