Thursday, June 23, 2011

return of the mach


Machiavellianism is the term that psychologists use to describe the act of deceiving and manipulating other people for one's personal gain.  It's also one of the three personality traits referred to as the dark triad, alongside narcissism and psychopathy.

Unfortunately, working in advertising I wouldn't know anything about that.

I was also pretty sure until recently that Niccolò Machiavelli, was a midfielder for Inter Milan.

Minor personality defects aside the Mac did have a cute repertoire of one-liners, this one being of particular interest to the innovationista:

'He who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things'

That's probably a bit brutal, but testament to the difficulty in effecting necessary and timely change where, on the surface of things, nothing appears to need changing, and in fact everything looks pretty good.

The apparent total flop of the Blackberry Playbook (and it's implications) being case in point.
RIM could have cleaned up years ago but for whatever reason some people chose to snooze, and ultimately, it looks like they are going to lose.

inspired by a timely tweet from @erinyasgar


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