03/27/2025

Why Your Smartest Colleagues are Virtuoso Manipulators

Few people want to be called "manipulative"

Manipulative is the most counterintuitive trait because nearly everyone trusts relationships, even their most important ones — spouse, kids, parents, business partner — to sort themselves out without conscious effort.

Over and over, we take our relationships for granted. Then we wonder why we have only two close friends in middle age, both from way back in college. Or why our trusted cofounder wants to be bought out of the business. Or why our spouse picked up and left us “all of a sudden.” “But I thought we were doing fine,” the surprised divorcée tells everyone.

If you’ve ever had a close relationship fail for reasons you didn’t understand, ask yourself whether you invested regular effort in maintaining that relationship. Relationships are living, breathing things. Invest time, effort, and thought in them, or they will crumble.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Big Think.