i significantly improved a job experience by getting drunk more often, not demonstrating intelligence, and performing half as well. i'm sorry to say this has served me well even beyond that employer.

Minimum wage for the business owner is less than zero...

No one can know what goes on in the consciousness of another person. But they can certainly react to their actions.
"We'd free the incarcerate race of man,
That such a doom endures,
Could you but creep into my mind,
Or I could enter yours."
Part of one of the few serious poems of Ogden Nash, called "Listen..."
As to understanding their psychology, if I were still active in the arena, it would be helpful, but it also would require a certain strength of intellect to keep it from making you feel unclean. I had to deal with my own crap enough without dealing with theirs.

I had a great friend and business associate from Chile. He was a VP of International Sales and Marketing for a company in Spain. He passed away about a year ago but I have many memories of him and our travels throughout the US and Europe. He was part Spanish and part native Chilean, a very smart architect and businessman but could be very volatile. His wife was Swedish, his mistress was French and I don't think he feared anything.

These "rules" apply today to government jobs (and government-protected jobs) but no others. In this age of disruptive technology, most any private company abiding by or enforcing these rules is asking to be chewed up by its competitors, after which its "conformist" employees will be looking for new jobs.

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." First penned by the apostle Paul as recorded in I Cor. 13:12

After working at many jobs, I finally came to that conclusion. The only boss I could truly get along with was me. And then, not always.

Which reminds me of a true incident. I was in Madison WI when the cheese storage place burned down. "What is that smell in the air today?"

I just interrupted the writing to see these comments :)
When I'm done with the book and ready to publish it in amazon (as I did with the other two) I will send an update here.

As an old friend told me, I'm old for deadlines, so I can promise that I will finish it, asap, but I don't know when.

I'm not familiar with the phrase "silo mentality." However, I think I can figure out the meaning. I'm afraid that my knowledge of Chile is very limited. It consists of pronouncing it Chee-Lay, It has the Andes mountains, it is a narrow country along the wast coast and they have a lama-like beast called an alpaca. Here I am, parading my ignorance.

You and I have much in common. I keep trying to retire @ 82, but when I see or read something so horrid, I am compelled to comment, which then gets me involved and I feel like the iconic line from The Godfather, "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in."

Tell us how to get the Spanish version, then.

No es tan difícil aprender a leer español. Yo mismo conozco sólo unas pocas palabras de español, pero tengo la pronunciación buena y tengo la habilidad tremenda para dar sentido a las traducciones computarizadas como Google Translate.

I appreciate you bringing up one of my favorite literary phrases of all time "through a glass darkly." But I disagree with your statement that we are bound by only understanding what is in our own mind. This smacks of the Austrian premise that we cannot know reality. In the end, a person (or group)'s intention may be less relevant than the result of their actions. It happens within any political spectrum, but the idea that vetting the writings of an individual is only valid with known, secondary sources, completely ignores how others react to those writings and then act. For example, one could say, Von MIses never really meant that-yet there is a whole group who use his name as an Institute who act on his writings. Same could be said of Objectivism. Ultimately, the psychology s not as important as the ultimate result. Do I need to understand Chomsky's brain in order to see that the result of his writings are to encourage chaos?

sounds very interesting. Are you willing to share more of your premises?

I live in Chile and thought that it was different in the US... The other day I heard on the radio a business consultant saying that the prevailing emotion in chilean executives is fear. Sad, and I agree.

Contributing my two cents, I'm writing right now a book about how to manage systemically, and the conclusion is that innovation is the way forward. By the way, the first innovation is a cultural change from silo mentality to systems thinking. Sorry, the book is written in spanish. Maybe I can translate it sometime in the future.

Then it wouldn't be an occult now would it...they would lose the exclusivity. Perverts melt in the light.

We should let them gather all in one place and then turn on the lights, it would be a big mess but nothing a bulldozer couldn't handle.

Start your own business... hire yourself.

After a really bad experience, I adopted these principles for reasons of safety and security. The problem was, it was not my nature and as old wounds healed, I broke all these rules, and more. Alas, another disaster occurred which despite the scars I continued to repeat my drive to satisfy my need to express myself. At 76, I have retired from the field of battle and reflect proudly on my foolishness.

You do not understand the psychology of your enemies. You project yourself on them. Really, each of us only knows himself inside. Even a psychologist who interviews clients all day only sees "through a glass darkly." I believe that Ayn Rand accurately portrayed the psychology of the second-hander, also of the mystic, the looter, and the "muscle-mystic."

And, of course, "freezing progress in place" is a claim, as you say, but, as we know, it is impossible: if you are not moving forward, then you are sliding backward.

Yesterday, Google celebrated the discovery of the Antikythera device. Following Ayn Rand's essay "For the New Intellectual" many here claim to admire ancient Rome. They do not see it as a dark age compared to the Hellenistic era or the previous Classical era.

Company loyalty can be found in some small organizations, but I doubt that there's any in any outfit larger than 50 employees.

Or, unless they need to keep up with a competitors innovation.

Freezing progress in place is a key characteristic of a totalitarian sate. Dictators hate innovation because keeping up with it means less money for them.

There is no pension anymore, no gold watch, no loyalty. You have to be Tarzan in the job market, grab a new job(vine) before you let go of the one you have. Almost impossible to stay with any company for 20 years.

Which is why it would be a good idea to take it out of the unspoken understanding and bring it out into the open. Every one of the Toohey types keep the 4 rules as a hidden understanding, how would it be if everyone just came out and admitted it.

That might be part of a B list.