Sublime

It doesn’t matter who your client is, they are paying you to be one of the few people in the world who is willing to say the things that no one else will say.

Effectiveness replaces morals as a yardstick for decision-making: the better I understand the way the world operates, the more I can achieve; the best decision is the one that begets the highest outcome.

The 1982 book In Search of Excellence, perhaps the best-selling management tome of all time, was written by two McKinsey partners.

In principle, any person can spend any amount of money, provided he has sought the necessary advice before making the decision; the larger the purchase, the more people are typically involved in the advice process.

Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

Yet Duveen told his doubting friends, “Not only will Mellon buy from me but he will buy only from me.” For several years he tracked his prey, learning the man’s habits, tastes, phobias. To do this, he secretly put several of Mellon’s staff on his own payroll, worming valuable information out of them. By the time he moved into action, he knew Mellon

A Sociopath with an idea recruits just enough Losers to kick off the cycle. As it grows, it requires a Clueless layer to turn it into a controlled reaction, rather than a runaway explosion. Eventually, as value hits diminishing returns, both the Sociopaths and Losers make their exits, and the Clueless start to dominate. Finally, the hollow brittle