It is a fundamental opposition: 1) cooperation and altruism produces more effective companies 2) ...but machiavellianism produces more individual reward from

It is a fundamental opposition: 1) cooperation and altruism produces more effective companies 2) ...but machiavellianism produces more individual reward from a company Which is why the corporate values of any McBig McOrg reflect #1 but day to day is inevitably #2 is what actually happens. Everyone is doing #2 while pretending to do #1, or couching it in terms of #1. For techies, it is absolutely necessary for you to realize what is going on in companies, since our lot is the ones that generally want to avoid middle management machiavellianism and just concentrate on producing value.