I've said "yes" so many times in the past. Although now I know better, it's still so difficult to shake the habit of being "nice".
You're right. It really is a dick move. All those times when I could have spent working on something that would help me grow was spent on wasting my time helping people in their work -- work that they should have figured out themselves. I thought I was helping but I was stripping them off the opportunity to be better human beings by doing what they should have learned to do.
In the end, I spent time learning and doing things that were not on my path to the life that I desire to live. I should have gone far in my life but instead I was a dick and went far in another life that was not meant for me to live.
David, you have no idea what you wrote here means to me right now. I'm having such a "I-don't-know-where-my-life-is-going" phase right now. It's 2:30 am where I live right now. I couldn't sleep. Reading this post helped me know why.