Ilana Ettinger

The bottom line is that 7 Rules of Power provides a clear roadmap for increasing your personal power and status over other people, if that’s what you’re looking to achieve. But it neglects to wrestle fully with the negative impacts of the tactics it espouses.

“Women need to be twice as good to get half the credit. Fortunately many women are four times as good.” —Alison Davis-Blake, former president of Bentley University (p. 17)

For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses,... See more

A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish.... See more

Weaving surprising science with personal stories and original illustrations, each chapter examines one uncomfortable feeling—like envy, burnout, and anxiety—and lays out strategies for making it manageable.

How to do it: 1. Define a larger cause.  2. Articulate the problem better than anyone else. 3. Attack the status quo. 4.  Define a category. 5. Build the right team. 6.  Use “grassroots” customer testimony. 7.  Release news in lightning strikes, not dribs and drabs. 8. Organize events to focus attention.9. Nurture your community. 10. Pick noble... See more