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I agree with your comment, but think it's largely unrelated to my point. My point isn't to cast judgment on people with dark traits. Rather, it's to provide a

I agree with your comment, but think it's largely unrelated to my point. My point isn't to cast judgment on people with dark traits. Rather, it's to provide an answer to the original question of whether people with dark personality traits are more likely to succeed. I think the answer is yes because the less attached you are to morality, the more choices you have at your disposal. And, the more choices you have at your disposal, the more likely you are to achieve your goals. The important caveat being that others don't catch on. Note that this point isn't mutually exclusive with the idea that there's a spectrum of conscientiousness, and where you fall on that spectrum changes with age and experience.

darkerside 6y ago
I agree with your broader point. Dark and light come with connotations. What I've found in my life is that if things look black and white, you aren't close enough to see the shades of gray. By playing into the good and evil tropes, I think we run the danger of oversimplifying the situation. People who understand the full breadth of options certainly have an advantage. That, to me, is orthogonal to whether or not people are moral. Just because you know that you can do things doesn't make you evil. In fact, from a philosophical standpoint, I'd argue there's more virtue in knowing the evil and choosing not to do it than there is in ignorance. And from a business standpoint, there are generally non moral reasons for acting in what look like moral ways.