The answer is a decision that Boyd challenged each of his acolytes to make: in life you eventually have to decide whether to be somebody, or do something. Whistle-blowing is one of those situational decisions that can precipitate this bigger existential decision. But everybody eventually comes to their own personal be somebody/do something fork in

This is not blatant stereotyping, it is blatant archetyping. A subtly different (and morally more defensible) approach to typecasting people. Sure you’ll go wrong sometimes, but you’ll be right more often. Drawing conclusions from people’s reading (or TV watching) tastes is one of the most robust ways to read people.

If you are driven by your own principles, you’ll generally search desperately for a calling, and when you find one, it will consume your life.

you need to keep your people connected enough to reality to be effective, but not so connected that they are demotivated and demoralized.

Turns out, for some people, life is so messed up that constantly validating an “I suck” life position, and enjoying moments of perverse vindication, is easier than doing something about it.

“It’s an incredibly consistent effect,” Mr. Keltner says. “When you give people power, they basically start acting like fools. They flirt inappropriately, tease in a hostile fashion, and become totally impulsive.” Mr. Keltner compares the feeling of power to brain damage, noting that people with lots of authority tend to behave like neurological

Now here is the paradox: idealism believes in change and creates unchanging human beings. Tragedism (to coin a word) believes humans cannot change their fundamental natures, yet believing in it actually transforms humans far more radically than the idealist view.

Of all organization men, the true executive is the one who remains most suspicious of The Organization. If there is one thing that characterizes him, it is a fierce desire to control his own destiny and, deep down, he resents yielding that control to The Organization, no matter how velvety its grip he wants to dominate, not be dominated...

I found a great answer in Robert Coram’s fascinating book, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, which has now bumped Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power to the #2 spot in my Be Slightly Evil reading list. You should also check out Chet Richards’ Certain to Win, an application of Boyd’s ideas to business.