The Alpha Weakness

From Vox Day The Alpha Weakness

I would seem as if this an indirect dig at Trump. Vox has repeatedly called Trump an alpha. Vox came to the same realization as I did, which is that Trump was not that effective of a leader, but the difference is he is only coming to that realization now, whereas I did in 2017. Alpha are highly receptive to praise and they want to be on the top of the hierarchy, but more importantly, want to be seen by others as on top. Becase alphas are easily flattered, this makes them susceptible to being misled and manipulated. We saw this with Trump…he consistently deferred to ‘experts’ who were ineffective and gave him bad advice, because they respected his authority, and those who didn’t either quit or were fired.

It’s as if Trump kept asking himself “What can I do to make billionaires, especially Silicon Valley, Wall St., and media billionaires, respect me more? Zuck and Dorsey are billionaires, like myself, so they must be reasonable, rational people. Maybe I can win their favor if I give them big tax cuts and distance myself from anyone to the right of Fox News.”

I think some of the most effective and profitable organizations/companies, such as in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street, have few alphas, betas, or deltas (or maybe only handful of high-IQ deltas, assuming such a person exists), but only hire gammas, omegas, and sigmas. Gammas are annoying to be around but they are smart. Omegas can also be smart, but, like sigmas, are not keen on flattery. Instead of leadership being hierarchical, it’s more decentralized. The top hedge funds in the world hire for brains first and foremost, not obedience or leadership qualities. They don’t want people who are just competent, but rather are among the best in the world at what they do (obsessive subject-matter experts). Washington is sorta the opposite, selecting for leadership and charisma.