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Just read some summary of his points elsewhere and had a hard time taking it seriously. For instance, > rule seven—which is basically that once you have power
by marmaduke 3y ago
Just read some summary of his points elsewhere and had a hard time taking it seriously. For instance,
> rule seven—which is basically that once you have power, money, and success, people will forget and forgive how you got there—is such an important rule is that it frees you to do everything else. This rule says that at the end, if you are successful, success excuses almost everything.
- boredemployee 3y agoSaw the release date of said books and I was just about to ask if it applies to 21 century ideas. Thanks for answering it.
- ZephyrBlu 3y agoThis is an accurate theory of mind for the vast majority of people.
- marcellus23 3y agoCould you explain why you think that's not worth taking seriously?
- mxwsn 3y agoNot the parent, but I wonder if it's too simplified. It's true for absolute power, but that's effectively impossible to obtain in reality, and a far cry from middle managers climbing over each other. Donald Trump is powerful but far from immune from everything he's done to obtain power. Mark Zuckerberg is powerful but doesn't have full control over his reputation. More broadly, I think seeking power will likely create enemies, whose behavior you can't control even if your power increases. Lots of leaders fall from grace all the time, in part for things they did to obtain power.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoThe higher you climb the larger the screwups and violations you're excused from. But as you say, this is a ladder, not an absolute.
- compiler-guy 3y agoThe "rule" is about how people behave. Not a moral judgement. It's more like: "People excuse almost anything for those in power got into power." instead of: "It was morally OK to do the things that led them to obtain that power."
- satvikpendem 3y agoIndeed, it's descriptivism versus prescriptivism.
- mattgreenrocks 3y agoThis is what social proof looks like: everyone believing that everyone else signed off on a successful person, thus they should continue to be seen as successful. The cyclic nature is unavoidable, and to some, a feature, not a bug.