Quotes from Robert I. Sutton

These malicious takers immediately start conniving to exploit people for their own purposes—but back off when they encounter uncooperative and selfish people like themselves.

Safe is a word that goes much better with sex than science."14

A hallmark of "successful" assholes is that they recruit, entice, or bribe toxic enablers to clean up the messes they leave behind—much like the cleanup crew that picks up the trash and poop after the circus parades through a town.

porcupine power.

When people (regardless of personality) wield power, their ability to lord it over others causes them to (1) become more focused on their own needs and wants; (2) become less focused on others' needs, wants, and actions; and (3) act as if written and unwritten rules others are expected to follow don't apply to them.

Porcupine power was the only language he understood.

Paul Goodman commented that "Few great men could pass personnel.

You are so cute when you are polite" and "Are you always this nice, or do you single me out because I am so special?

In fact, selling—rather than creating—inventions may have been Thomas Edison's greatest talent. Many of the famous inventions from his laboratory were imagined and developed by his staff, not Edison. His assistant, Francis Jehl, lamented that Edison was a more skilled pitchman than inventor, that his "genius" was most reminiscent of master huckster and showman P. T. Barnum.

William Coyne, former head of research and development at 3M, tells how a human resource manager once threatened to fire a scientist who was asleep under his bench. Coyne took the HR manager to 3M's "Wall of Patents" to show him that the sleeping scientist had developed some of 3M's most profitable products. Coyne advised, "Next time you see him asleep, get him a pillow."3 Unfortunately, not all executives are so wise.

But flattery, smiles, and other signs of appreciation (even if not entirely sincere) can be useful for convincing volatile and vindictive people to tamp down their inner angst and anger—so they won't take it out on you.

innovative companies need a wide range of ideas and that success requires a high failure rate.

Other studies suggest that some people are grumpy, insulting, or overbearing primarily because they are insecure about their abilities and prestige. This is a hallmark of petty tyrants, which

When big organizations scale well, they focus on "moving a thousand people forward a foot at a time, rather than moving one person forward by a thousand feet.

The engineer said his solution is to orient himself "as a comrade inside of the walls, therefore bypassing the confrontation." He avoids the asshole's wrath by expressing empathy and finding common ground—shared interests such as hobbies, sports, or politics

Love bombing" is a related and more extreme strategy for dealing with insecure assholes—you go beyond expressing empathy and holding your tongue, and respond to their nastiness with warmth and kindness. Your aim is to transform your oppressor into a friend and admirer.

As we saw in chapter 5, research on schoolyard and workplace bullying shows that people who ruminate about getting even, rather than letting it go, suffer negative effects including anxiety, depression, and sleep problems.

Creativity isn't about wild talent as much as it's about productivity. To find new ideas that work, you need to try a lot that don't. It's a pure numbers game.