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The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

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Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#61

Post by theptip »

tomrod wrote: post #59
b3morales wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joffrey was a Clueless if ever there was one. He had no grasp of strategy, no skill at manipulation, no understanding of how to present himself. His mother on the other hand was a Sociopath's Sociopath.

I agree that he was clueless. He was also a sociopath and nominally in charge, though not by his own choice. A patsy set up to fail. And I 100% agree on Cersei.

I think it’s important to distinguish DSM Sociopath (Joffrey) from Gervais Principle Sociopath (Cersei).

Both abbreviate to “sociopath” but they are very different concepts.

I don’t think Joffrey qualifies as a GP Sociopath at all, as GP notes. While he was “in charge” he didn’t play the GP Sociopath game, and so was quickly removed. As the OP notes it’s possible for Clueless to be placed in positions of power in plenty of cases, for example when a fall guy is needed, or a puppet. So just wearing the crown doesn’t mean he MUST be a GP Sociopath.

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#63

Post by agumonkey »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #51
agumonkey wrote: post #35

I honestly never managed to extract any sense of any notion this article put forward.

We have a wonderful spot for you in lower management!

heh, brilliant

i can't wait to climb the ladder and step over all of y..

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#64

Post by Upgrayyed_U »

candiddevmike wrote: post #34
flavius29663 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is: will only the sociopath led medium-companies become large companies? Or do large companies choose a sociopath leadership while becoming large?

In my experience, every company eventually gets led by a sociopath. Every worker has the same story about how the old boss was so good to employees etc and then replaced by some ruthless profiteer. Companies prosper (profitableish, lots of innovation, employees are first) under the former, and are eventually pillaged and killed under the latter. I think our current economic/social climate forces the kind of gervais p…

This mirrors my experience as well. In the small and medium-sized business area, the "sociopaths" are the large businesses and private equity firms looking to acquire the smaller businesses. Or often it's the business owner who's the only sociopath in the business, but they are far enough removed from day-to-day operations that the people working underneath them don't recognize them as sociopaths.

Another thing I've learned is that the more time you spend with executives, the easier it becomes to recognize this behavior. Go to any large chamber meeting in any large-ish city in the U.S., and I'm sure you will find plenty of sociopaths (in both the literal and the Gervais Principle sense).

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#65

Post by jacobolus »

spoonjim wrote: post #48
tomrod wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember watching it as a kid and realizing that cartoons could be not good... is it better several decades later?

Dilbert isn’t for kids… it’s for people who have spent time in a bureaucratic office setting.

What works as a 3-panel comic strip falls flat on its face when translated too literally to video. You need to hire good writers, director, animators, voice actors, etc. to make an effective video show, and you need to have an idea better than “show a sequence of loosely related 3-panel comic strip jokes, but animated”.

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#66

Post by fazfq »

x86x87 wrote: post #41
citizenpaul wrote: post #24

>(the office) I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space. Dilbert is a hand drawn comic so it will never have the media reach of TV. It also tends to focus more on the details of the bureaucratic brokenness for people to laugh rather than cry at in daily life. The office is syndicated TV with a new episode every week. It…

Dilbert does have a cartoon TV series that ran for 2 seasons. https://youtu.be/J1KEPvuiQIs

I always feel like I'm the only one who enjoyed the series. I don't know what's so terribly bad about it. It's not The Simpsons, and it's not _that_ related to the strip, but it's amusing in many ways.

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#67

Post by zitterbewegung »

cercatrova wrote: post #55
citizenpaul wrote: post #24

>(the office) I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space. Dilbert is a hand drawn comic so it will never have the media reach of TV. It also tends to focus more on the details of the bureaucratic brokenness for people to laugh rather than cry at in daily life. The office is syndicated TV with a new episode every week. It…

Mike Judge is also devastatingly effective. I know people who can't watch Silicon Valley because it's too real.

I was making an app to classify food if it had nuts or not. Someone on HN commented about hot dog or not app that was in the episode. I didn't have HBO so I wasn't even aware of its existence.

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#68

Post by tsol »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #54
k__ wrote: post #20

It's really helpful to identify sociopaths. They know what's up and make things happen, but not friendship material. Kinda dangerous when you interact with one without noticing. Losers are cool and mostly harmless. The alphas can be a bit annoying sometimes, but most of them can be good friends.

I had a boss who was a complete and utter sociopath (by the article's definitions), but there were few people I'd rather go to the pub and have a pint with. Dangerous combination. Gotta watch out for those. What he couldn't otherwise make happen through force of will, he could through personality. He's the CIO at some middling company now, and there's no way I'd connect to him on LinkedIn.

Why are people afraid of these sociopath types? I'm new to the corporate world, but it's not like they're going to just randomly attack you right?

Re: The Gervais Principle, or the Office According to “The Office” (2009)

#70

Post by Aloha »

fazfq wrote: post #66
x86x87 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dilbert does have a cartoon TV series that ran for 2 seasons. https://youtu.be/J1KEPvuiQIs

I always feel like I'm the only one who enjoyed the series. I don't know what's so terribly bad about it. It's not The Simpsons, and it's not _that_ related to the strip, but it's amusing in many ways.

It was hilarious, I enjoyed it a lot actually.
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