I've noticed this in a lot of fields. The people best at making money are often those who have no emotional attachment to it, and treat it just like a number t

I've noticed this in a lot of fields. The people best at making money are often those who have no emotional attachment to it, and treat it just like a number to be maximized. Oftentimes the best surgeons are the ones who don't really care about patients as people (witness the Dr. House trope, or McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy) but rather as bodies to be patched up. Personally I think my big-company employer is deeply dysfunctional, but I (unfortunately) seem to be relatively good at operating within it, wracking up launches and promos for myself and my team. I suspect this is because I don't try to pretend it's something that it's not: I know that I'm in a fucked up system and nothing I do has any meaning long-term and don't pretend otherwise, which lets me look at things as they actually are and determine my best course of action rationally. A lot of other people are blinded by the halo effect and try to operate within the company as they think it should be, which is self-defeating because that's not reality. It might be the same for Americans trying to navigate the American political system. We're so blinded by the myths and propaganda that we've been fed since childhood that we can't see how the system actually operates.