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“I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

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Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#71

Post by NeedMoreTea »

HenryBemis wrote: post #70
ruytlm wrote: post #29

I am reminded of a post I once read[0] on how coyotes are 'too clever by half'; smart enough to realise how to win each skirmish, but without realising they're losing the metagame. Johnson strikes me as someone who has learned to 'hack' the skirmishes (e.g. by playing the fool when giving speeches as discussed) in order to win in the short term, but who seems oblivious to (or to be willfully disregarding) the long te…

Great article, thank you. As for BoJo, he is smart as a fox. Trump is the same. They make 1-2 stupid things, so people call them stupid. On the back side they scheme and plan. Haters see the stupid actions and hate. They play a game of chess, sacrificing a pawn (some 'credibility' by saying something stupid), and while people are getting tired of their artificial stupidity, they march on doing their thing left alone.…

You're aware of what a complete cock up he made of his entire time as Foreign Secretary?

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#72

Post by mikekchar »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #12

If this is true, the man is obviously a genius. That said, the 'act of the fool' mightn't work in operational reality, because if everyone believes he's an unprepared bumpkin, then that's the reality, and he won't be respected. His former editor at the Telegraph had some very harsh words about him, along the lines of 'he only cares about himself, he's totally unprepared, has no idea what he is doing' etc. and I'll ga…

He's certainly very intelligent. He went through Eton on a scholarship and then Balliol Colledge at Oxford also on scholarship (although only took an upper second). It would be pretty difficult to have a better educational pedigree. According to Wikipedia he was notoriously lazy at school, which may have accounted for not getting a first.

I've been told by acquaintences who knew him at Oxford that he definitely plays the bumpkin card, but is in reality very, very shrewd. I think he did a good job as Mayor of London. His views are pretty much diametrically opposed to mine, but I suspect that he will become Prime Minister and will probably do a pretty good job (though I might not be happy with the outcome -- competence in people with differing goals is not always a good thing ;-) ). I guess we'll see how it goes.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#73

Post by omeid2 »

monodeldiablo wrote: post #61
omeid2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's best to just assume they are in fact, a bumbling idiot. That is intellectual laziness. Climbing the political ladder is no mean feat. Sure, serendipity plays a big role, you need to be in the right place at the right time but don't dismiss people's intelligence based on public speaking.

He didn't "climb the political ladder". He was born on the top rung. His whole family are politicians, and his dad was president.

No doubt that was a massive influence, but we all know every presidents' son is also a president, specially in USA.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#74

Post by tobr »

Arbalest wrote: post #18

He must have recognised the seachange of populism and created a persona to suit. Reminds me of the BDG video on Polygon on how to create the perfect E3 presentation. Particularly the part about Gaffes. I suppose this was a long time coming, in marketing circles, it is agreed that "Generation X" was the first "Jaded" generation, and I feel like there's some link there. Marketing to that generation often involves takin…

> Reminds me of the BDG video on Polygon on how to create the perfect E3 presentation. Particularly the part about Gaffes.

Perhaps I’m the only one who hasn’t seen or knows exactly which video this refers to, and what it has to say about gaffes, but next time I would appreciate a link to go with a comment like this.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#75

Post by dang »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #58
dang wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no rule against politics on HN as such (and never has been: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 ). The rule is against garden-variety politics—the kind with no intellectually interesting aspect: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . Many good HN submissions have some political overlap. That's inevitable and fine as long as people don't use the site for political battle, which takes disc…

The no political battle rule though seems to make all direct U.S politics off limits however.

It's a question of what the community is capable of. If a thread can substantively discuss some interesting topic that overlaps with "direct U.S. politics", that's fine. If it degenerates into political battle and flamewar, it's off topic. Preserving the container takes precedence.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#76

Post by MagnumOpus »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #71
HenryBemis wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great article, thank you. As for BoJo, he is smart as a fox. Trump is the same. They make 1-2 stupid things, so people call them stupid. On the back side they scheme and plan. Haters see the stupid actions and hate. They play a game of chess, sacrificing a pawn (some 'credibility' by saying something stupid), and while people are getting tired of their artificial stupidity, they march on doing their thing left alone.…

You're aware of what a complete cock up he made of his entire time as Foreign Secretary?

Bring smart is not the same as being well-prepared, diligent, conscientious, tactful or having your constituents' best interest at heart.

You don't get to be King's Scholar at Eton being a buffoon.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#77

Post by gexla »

duxup wrote: post #35

I've been lucky enough to know some US state level politicians for quite some time, not major figures, but folks who did it most of their life (while doing other things too) and were successful at it. I often got the felling that they did that thing, and even pushed the issues they did... because they were successful at it and it fit their personality. Most were not idealists despite what they said IMO, I suspect man…

> Most were not idealists despite what they said IMO, I suspect many if pressed to change their positions did not really care about the issues outside of a couple topics at most (and due to the winds of change in US politics most actually supported surprisingly different issues over time).

They represent the views of the people who vote. Those views change over time. This is much like me doing what my employer asks for, despite my own preferences. It's not our views which are important, but rather the ability to execute for those we are working for.

I think most workers don't care so much about the mission of their employers. They find a way to make their work interesting and things get done regardless.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#78

Post by jacquesm »

diego_moita wrote: post #42

As a non-British, I say that the idea of Boris Johnson leading Britain through Brexit sounds just like an orangutan riding a double decker bus through Piccadilly Circus: you don't want to be there, but you don't want to miss a second of this show. Sorry Italy! You're not the funniest country in Europe anymore. Britain just got their own Silvio Berlusconi.

Boris is much worse than Silvio Berlusconi, who is - predictably - following the money and looking out for his buddies. Johnson will happily ruin the whole country for a gain in status.

Re: “I thought I'd share this Boris Johnson story with you”

#79

Post by onion2k »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #76
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're aware of what a complete cock up he made of his entire time as Foreign Secretary?

Bring smart is not the same as being well-prepared, diligent, conscientious, tactful or having your constituents' best interest at heart. You don't get to be King's Scholar at Eton being a buffoon.

You don't get to be King's Scholar at Eton being a buffoon

OK, so he's a clever buffoon.

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