Power. Strategy. Human behavior. I deconstruct the hidden mechanics of influence, status & leverage. 35 Forbidden Maxims ↓
Tenets of Power
Joined April 2021
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The most competent man in the room rarely runs the room. Competence gets you hired. Power decides who gets heard.
Here is why competent men keep losing inside organizations 🧵
Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke were product designers of a kind. They built systems on a model of man, and the systems failed when the model was wrong. Philosophy is not theory, it is the spec sheet for human nature.
philosophy is a deeply underrated vector of product insight, particularly when you attempt to build systems that are modeling fundamental aspects of our existence.
stuff like memory, identity, agency, intention, consciousness, love, & relationships are philosophical problems long before they're engineering problems.
which is why it’s always very surprise & lovely to see posts that start off with a philosophical insight.
Every new weapon looks like magic to the crowd and like a tool to the master. The printing press did not make printers, it made publishers. The edge was never the tool, it was the man who understood it deeply enough to command it.
Critics inherit nothing. Rome was not built by men who pointed at flaws, it was built by men who laid stone. The pessimist keeps his hands clean, the optimist keeps the kingdom.
Comfort is the tax on talent. The Medici bankers knew it: a salary buys your obedience, equity buys your freedom. Refuse the golden cage, or admit you chose the cage over the crown.
Old boss once warned: "You'll never be rich since you're obviously smart, and someone will always offer you a job that's just good enough."
@naval
The daily doctrine lives where the algorithm cannot reach it: t.me/tenetsofpower
