Top Performers Are Pathologically Ambitious

thatvastvariety.substack.com

30 pointspaulpauper3 comments

One problem especially in big companies is that top performers are not just pathological with ambition but also what they’re willing to do for it. Taking credit. Diminishing others. Winning political battles to get the big project or to get more resources.

It forces others who may be just as skilled to also resort to the same tactics. And that is what makes many work environments toxic.

The article says it wants more altruistic people to be ambitious and also that extreme ambition is bad. But the problem is that altruistic people ARE already ambitious, but are competing with people who have extreme, pathological ambitions.

Yep. There are many, many big fish in tiny ponds overrated and overpaid assholes who lord status, seniority, and title over others by overtalking and ignoring others, shoot down everyone else's ideas reflexively, and are unable and unwilling to see anything outside of their narrow, calcified viewpoint. I remember this atrophied Cisco CCIE who became a manager scoff at WireGuard because "he hadn't heard of it" while promoting antique ASA VPN that was fragile, unreliable, and unsupported. Then there was this negative, inhuman IC paid somewhere $750k-1M year who had been there forever who was in-charge of "important things" incapable of listening to anyone else's ideas or communicating anything cooperative, positive, or real in the slightest... but always there to express FUD about everyone else's plans and ready to make people look stupid or incompetent at the slightest perceived nit. Bloody hell, prima donnas need to be fired immediately for the sake of team morale.

I think one blind spot for this type of article is the risk of taking hagiographies at their word.

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