I had a hard time reading this (like others did) because I felt like I was one of the brilliant jerks he is talking about. But there is something to the effect

I had a hard time reading this (like others did) because I felt like I was one of the brilliant jerks he is talking about. But there is something to the effect of a "bad apple" on the barrel as a whole: http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/toss-the-bad-apple-employee.html http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/toss-the-bad-apple-employe... From my own experience, the best way to diffuse me when I'm turning into the "brilliant jerk" is to give me some projects with some breathing room. I'm a lot less jerky when I having being through a serial stream of "jumping on the grenade" on critical/stressful projects that were about to explode.