Most people assume that totalitarian regimes rise because one exceptionally evil genius seizes power. A mad dictator hypnotizes millions, and the rest is tragedy. It is a comforting story. It is also wrong. Hannah Arendt spent decades trying to understand how the worst political systems in human history actually worked. What she found was far […]
Totalitarianism for Dummies: The Simple Recipe for Extreme Evil Read More »
Adam Smith died in 1790. He never saw a YouTube thumbnail, never scrolled past a clickbait headline, never lost forty minutes to a video essay about why a cartoon from 1997 was secretly about capitalism. And yet, if you drag his ideas into the present, they have something uncomfortably sharp to say about the entire
You meet someone at a party. You ask what they do. They say “neurosurgeon,” and something shifts behind your eyes. A small, involuntary recalibration. You stand a little straighter. You listen a little harder. Your questions get slightly more thoughtful. Now replay the scene. Same person, same face, same outfit. But this time they say
Why You Judge People Based on Their Job Title (It’s Not Just Snobbery) Read More »
Most people treat social media like a diary. They post what they feel, when they feel it, to whoever happens to be scrolling. Then they wonder why nobody pays attention. Sun Tzu would have found this hilarious. The man who wrote The Art of War over two thousand years ago had never seen a smartphone.
The Social Media General: How to Use Deception and Terrain in Your Online Presence Read More »
You trust your common sense. Of course you do. It feels reliable, like a friend who has never let you down. You use it to make decisions, judge people, and navigate the world. It whispers reassurances: you already know how things work. And that is precisely why it is dangerous. Francis Bacon, the English philosopher
Carl von Clausewitz never managed a corporate department. He never sat through a quarterly review where someone explained, with a straight face, that the report could not be finished because the system was down. He never watched a mid level manager respond to an urgent request with a nineteen paragraph email that answered nothing. And
Weaponized Incompetence: Using Organizational Friction as a Defensive Shield Read More »
There is something almost theatrical about watching a Fortune 500 company release a statement on social justice. The language is careful. The font is tasteful. The logo gets a seasonal makeover. And somewhere in the background, the same company is lobbying for tax loopholes that would make a Renaissance pope blush. This is not hypocrisy
The Economics of Virtue Signaling: Why Companies Talk Values but Chase Rents Read More »
There is a number deposited into your bank account every two weeks. You probably think of it as your worth. You have been trained to think this way since the first time someone asked you that oddly intimate question at a dinner party: “So, what do you make?” Here is the uncomfortable truth. That number
Most of us spend good money avoiding arguments. We pay for noise canceling headphones. We curate social media feeds that reflect our views back at us like a warm mirror. We choose friends who nod along when we talk. And when someone disagrees with us, our first instinct is not curiosity. It is irritation. John
There is a particular kind of power that does not announce itself. It does not wear a crown or sit on a throne. It sends emails. It schedules meetings. It builds org charts and performance review frameworks. It speaks in the careful, bloodless language of “alignment,” “stakeholder engagement,” and “strategic prioritization.” And it runs nearly