Chapter 5 Banishing Talent

The congressional resolution proposing an early warning system for idiots among the general population was shot down in committee as politically incorrect. That makes me suspicious. The only people who don’t see a need to issue idiot alerts are idiots. That’s because they don’t see themselves as a threat to operational efficiency in the workplace or the health and psychological well-being of their team members.

What many idiots do see as a threat to their own health and psychological well-being is competency. Idiots often perceive competent and talented people as threats, not because they have anything against accomplishment, but because their bosses might expect them to actually accomplish something. Machiavellians ...

Get How to Work for an Idiot now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.