I've run into the Gervais principle in practice too, and I have a different thought. It's a thought that I find very depressing. It seems to me that the vast m

I've run into the Gervais principle in practice too, and I have a different thought. It's a thought that I find very depressing. It seems to me that the vast majority of people are timid, conservative, and simply too afraid to do anything. The sociopathic business hustler types I've met may be awful people, total assholes who stomp on everyone they can, but they also are unafraid. They're initiators. They make things happen. It seems sometimes like there's two kinds of people in the world: monsters and the timid. Heroes only exist in comic books. If this is true, then perhaps societies and economies tolerate the antics of the sociopaths because they are the only people who initiate new actions on a large scale. I definitely see that tolerance in peoples' attitudes toward "captains of industry" who have obvious narcissistic or sociopathic leanings: "sure he's an arsehole but without him there would be no X."