Post No. 3,556 - A new description for the worst managers I experienced when working: extractive

As I have continued reading Eric Ries' book “Incorruptible” (pub. Simon & Schuster, 2026,  ISBN:9798893312065;   I first came across this here (Substack);   Kobo,  Barnes & Noble,  Apple Books,  Amazon), I have been thinking about the term “extractive”. 

I came across this in the economic sense of extractive to describe companies that are greedily grasping all the money they can at the expense of the nations that own natural resources a few years ago, and Eric Ries’ book used the term to describe those greedy parasites (my word choice) that destroy human, social,  environmental, and financial capital by buying up and destroying companies for very short term money gain. 

Now, I am considering using it to describe the worst of managers I encountered during my working career - noting that some managers were exceptionally good as human beings and at their management job, and the overwhelming majority of those who weren’t were simply flawed human beings who were out of their depth ... but a number were deliberately maliciouso/osadistico/obombastico/oauthoritarian / narcissistico/oDarkoTriado/osociopathic, and one, from the 1980s,opsychopathic. 

Those latter were also extractive, in that they destroyed human capital (and thus also financial capital of the company, and human & social capital that  belonged to society) by turning their victims (and terrifiedofamilyomembers, in some cases) into sources of: 

• sadisticopleasure; 

• narcissisticofood;  

• kudos to climb the company hierarchy;  

• social status points to climb the social status ladder; and 

• warnings to control, subsume, expunge, and obliterate other victims.  

Perhaps just like, in many ways, others (including the unnatural persons known as corporations) described using the term extractive ...  

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlightopossible flaws / issues youoshouldoconsider: 

• there mayobe flawedologicaloarguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ freeoonline course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinkingocaps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

  

Gnwmythr 

teaching the "good" (balancedopositive and spirituallyomature [BPM]) 
safer and more effective ways to counter the "bad" (outoofobalance, spirituallyoimmature [nonBPM/antiBPM]) 

IMO, OTAAT (“one term at a time”) is the next action to save representative  democracy, along with establishment of an organisation of human-rights observing  democracies as a functional alternative to the UN (especially the veto-sabotaged UN SC), along with all organisations being run using the seven "business" principles listed here, but also note this and this “Vision for Humanity” 

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Remember: we generallyoneed to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgenderingois an act of activeotransphobia/transmisiaothat puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptoroto prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

 

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2026     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. AI was NOT used to write this article. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 3,175 - Life purpose and meaning

A few years ago I posted (on my political blog) an initial response to reading a sample of Rutger  Bregman's "Humankind" (Bloomsbury, 2020, ISBN 978-0316418539 [I haven't bought it yet, so can't give an e-book ISBN 978-1-4088-9896-3], Amazon). It's been too long since I read it for me to remember enough of that book to post any sort of sensible review or critique, other than: 

• it describes what is considered the real life basis for the dreadful book “Lord of Flies” - and, in real life, it was cooperative, community-based, and caring; 
  
  and 

• overall I thought it was good, but I disagreed with some aspects of it (which I will not describe, as you should read it - knowing I consider it good or maybe even very good, but not perfect - and make up your own mind). 

The author has a new book out, titled “Moral Ambition” (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025, ISBN 9781526685575,  Kobo, Apple Books,  Amazon); , which I found out about through a podcast interview: 

“How to Be a Good Person in a Bad World: A Conversation with Rutger Bregman”   The PoliticsGirl Podcast (who I first came across on YouTube)   “Historian and author, Rutger Bregman believes there’s an antidote to the sense of emptiness that so many people feel, and it’s the will to make the world a better place. To devote your career to the greater challenges of our time rather than just making money. That the time has come for a moral reawakening. That moral ambition not just financial ambition is what we need if we want to fix the world and actually like our place in it”       

The interview was interesting, and is well worth a proper listen - the blurb above gives a good sense of what mostly it was about, but it also introduced a new organisation the author has created/helped create with a view to making the world a better place:  

Moral Ambition   https://www.moralambition.org/      

The non-profit organisation is aiming to acheive its aims in a number of ways, including funded fellowships, organised activities including “ambition circles”. 

I don’t know the organisation, and I haven’t read the book, so I can't definitively say anything one way or another, but a quick Internet search was promising and didn’t throw up any red flags (which doesn’t mean they don’t exist, so keep your thinking caps on). 

Probably the best search result, in my opinion (IMO), was: 

“Effective altruism is stumbling. Can “moral ambition” replace it?”   https://bigthink.com/high-culture/effective-altruism-moral-ambition/   “In “Moral Ambition,” Dutch historian Rutger Bregman argues that all would benefit from a collective redefinition of success”   which includes a reference to   

“The consequences of having a ‘bullshit job’”   https://www.eur.nl/en/news/consequences-having-bullshit-job   NPO Radio 1      

There was also an excellent review in The Big Issue (with some surprising info about the advance and where that is going),   The Guardian,   goodreads,   and   Readings. 

PS - see also “The EA's guide to Moral Ambition”   https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/piNDCbpmGiy8P85hL/the-ea-s-guide-to-moral-ambition   “Epistemic status: An email thread with a representative for Moral Ambition, consumption of Rutger Bregman's and Moral Ambition's book and social media. A year of leading my local EA group, deep understanding of EA ideas”       

I have subscribed to the website’s email service, but have not become a member - partly because I am already busy. 

 

I also wish to point out that this has been addressed before - most notably, IMO, the organisation 80,000 hours. The new organisation will, I suspect, do more than what 80,000 hours was able to do with their resources - which could not match what the new organisation has (see The Big Issue review), through no fault of their own.  

In any case, I consider this is all worth a look and a think. 

 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options. 

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here. 

(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)  

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2025     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/