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Subtlety, Subterfuge, and Silence: "Managers, wanna-be managers, and folks who want to understand managers simply need to read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green and Joost Elffers. I've purposely not done any background research on this document because my first reaction to this list was profound and I wanted to stare at that reaction. There's some pretty evil shit documented there as well as some basic truths about what managers are up do on a daily basis. I can't tell if the guys who wrote this are serious when they write 'Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability', but after several readings, yeah, I think they're serious. My problem with this list and how it relates to managers is that some many of the 'rules' involve psychological torture of those you're trying to lead and that strikes me as a good way further the intense knee-jerk reaction regarding managers. 'That guy is a power hungry jerk'. Still... Part of management is navigating your way through some tricky political jungles... Part of management is getting folks to comfortably bend in a uncomfortable direction. A good manager is a person who is playing to a strategy and isn't merely stumbling around squashing fires all day. Management is chess. When you're presented with a problem, you sometimes need to sit back and take a look at the board, figur"