3 ms·

He is one of those people who think they can talk their way out of everything. Everything is not only negotiable, but the only possible "truth" is what they are

He is one of those people who think they can talk their way out of everything. Everything is not only negotiable, but the only possible "truth" is what they are saying right now (yesterday's "truth"? "You're remembering that incorrectly - I never said that!"). I hated working for people like that, and I'd feel like I needed to take a shower after every meeting. If you only encounter them occasionally, a normal person would just think "wow, they're really charismatic". Daily, repeated contacts with them crawl under your skin. I'm grateful that the word "gaslighting" has entered common vocabulary as I didn't have words to describe them (back then).

jeffwask 3y ago
You can only hear you're a genius so many times before you start believing your own press.
guhidalg 3y ago
Gaslighting is a such a great phrase. It's a very specific kind of cognitive dissonance that is so common in the workplace. I find the worst gaslighters are "leaders" who surreptitiously change their stance on something without communicating why. Over time everyone under them just loses the motivation to do more than the bare minimum because they don't know if the goal will match the leader's requests.
- suoduandao3 3y ago
  I'm reminded of Neal Stephenson's description of Rhetors and Incantors in 'Anathem' - "Rhetors could change the past and were eager to do so, Incantors could change the future and were very cautious using that ability". Could be a parable about leadership styles.
red-iron-pine 3y ago
the term your looking for is narcissist, or maybe "charismatic sociopath"
grvdrm 3y ago
Wow, amazing phrasing. I work for this person now!
dboreham 3y ago
It's not really a "thing people do", more "how their ChatGPT works". Holding consistent state over a long time period is pretty advanced brain stuff. E.g. mice and even monkeys don't need that capability much. We delude ourselves into believing that human brains have filesystem-level persistence, but really they don't. SBF is just a bit more sigma from the mean.

jeffwask 3y ago

You can only hear you're a genius so many times before you start believing your own press.

guhidalg 3y ago

Gaslighting is a such a great phrase. It's a very specific kind of cognitive dissonance that is so common in the workplace. I find the worst gaslighters are "leaders" who surreptitiously change their stance on something without communicating why. Over time everyone under them just loses the motivation to do more than the bare minimum because they don't know if the goal will match the leader's requests.

suoduandao3 3y ago
I'm reminded of Neal Stephenson's description of Rhetors and Incantors in 'Anathem' - "Rhetors could change the past and were eager to do so, Incantors could change the future and were very cautious using that ability". Could be a parable about leadership styles.

red-iron-pine 3y ago

the term your looking for is narcissist, or maybe "charismatic sociopath"

grvdrm 3y ago

Wow, amazing phrasing. I work for this person now!

dboreham 3y ago

It's not really a "thing people do", more "how their ChatGPT works". Holding consistent state over a long time period is pretty advanced brain stuff. E.g. mice and even monkeys don't need that capability much. We delude ourselves into believing that human brains have filesystem-level persistence, but really they don't. SBF is just a bit more sigma from the mean.