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That quote gave me some serious creeping chills down my spine.
by wesammikhail 7y ago
That quote gave me some serious creeping chills down my spine.
- nyolfen 7y agowhat is creepy about it? it’s downright humanitarian. ‘mitigate negative experiences and protract pleasant ones.’
- grawprog 7y agoHmmm >Therefore any cruelty has to be executed at once, so that the less it is tasted, the less it offends; That doesn't say to mitigate negative experiences, it says to do them quickly to get them over with >while benefits must be dispensed little by little, so that they will be savored all the more.” This says to dole out benefits slowly little by little so the masses can savour each little good thing given. That's not humanitarian that's Pavlovian.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- noirbot 7y agoHumanitarian isn't really the right word, but it's good advice even if you're not being evil about it. If you have to give out bad news, it's better to be quick and complete about it than have rumors swirling for weeks, or have to keep giving out a new bit of bad news every week for months. That's true even if you're not intentionally being cruel, and can help people process it all at the same time, instead of just living in a deluge of bad feelings.
- grawprog 7y agoThis is true. I just don't think Machiavelli was well known for his positive humanitarian outlook towards things. I suppose it's assuming bad faith. You do make a good point though, and it's probably better to try and take a positive message out of it.
- viridian 7y agoAre you confusing Machiavelli for Hobbes? Machiavelli was largely a proponent of liberty, and his patrons whom he gifted the Prince, the Medicis, don't even make the top 5 list for inhumane behavior as far as powerful Italian ruling families go.
- efsavage 7y agoI think "concentrate negative experiences and dilute pleasant ones" would be a more accurate restatement.
- wayoutthere 7y agoYeah, Machiavelli tends to do that. Fitting that most top-tier business schools quite literally use The Prince as a textbook for building and maintaining organizational power structures. Future executives are taught that Machiavellianism is very bad... unless you're the one doing it.
- keiferski 7y agoThe modern word "Machiavellian" has had a life of its own and doesn't correlate directly to what is actually in The Prince, though. When we (in 2019) describe someone as machiavellian, we tend to imagine some sort of mustache-twirling evil mastermind. The book itself is more like a dispassionate, semi-scientific textbook on how to be a ruler. The quote I listed above is a good example. M. is essentially just saying that, "if you have to do bad things, do them quickly and all at once." Generally good advice, I'd say. A modern analog would be firing employees - avoid it if possible, but once it's determined to be absolutely necessary, just do it. Don't waffle, give conflicting messages, or build an atmosphere of dread. Make the tough decision, execute it quickly, and then move on. Of course, one could argue that the manager should have made better decisions to avoid the need to fire people in the first place, but that's a deeper discussion.
- shadowgovt 7y agoAnd honestly, the reverse idea in the quote is also true. If you have finite resources to spend on perks, don't blow the perk budget in Q1; divide it up into several smaller boons and spread it out across quarters. We know human psychology has diminishing returns on positive feeling and you'll get more out of several small dopamine boosts than one big one. Machiavelli is still taught because, frustratingly, it still applies.
- barry-cotter 7y agoI call bullshit. If there is a single class at HBS, Wharton or Stanford that uses The Prince as a textbook I will eat a teddy bear. I’d be slightly surprised if there was a class that used readings from it extensively but that at least is possible. Business schools don’t have courses in political philosophy, nor do top ones have courses that are brain dead airport business books in lecture form.