The Lysander Effect
Embrace the Dark side of Leadership to Unlock Unwavering Loyalty When I was sixteen, I worked at a deli chain. Two of my managers stand out in my mind...
When Winners Lose Elections
When we win a victory, we feel good. Why? One reason is that our brains adjust our self conceptions accordingly. We start to think of ourselves as more competent,...
The Art of Digging Ditches
How do we stack the deck in our favor? Sulla was a master of the battle tactic of digging trenches. It was once of the strategies he used in...
How to spend the rest of the winter
No matter what day of the year it is, you could be in the dead of “winter.” Customers stop calling, there are no more regular season games; your friends...
How Spartans successfully pitch ideas to a tough crowd
How do you make sure good ideas win? Once upon a time the Spartan elders of the gerousia liked a proposal but didn’t like the proposer. They wanted...
How to Treat a Defeated Rival
Everyone thought Callisthenes was a lucky man. He was victorious. He got the girl. What went wrong? Sometimes when we think we have won, we are not in the...
A Greek General on How to end up Doing the Real Thing
How should we train for the things we want to do end up doing? Philopoemen went on to be a famous commander (and trainer) of the army of the...
The Spartan attitude toward the Gods
A scholar once called Sparta “the state swayed beyond all others by the fear of the gods.” They consulted oracles for the god’s guidance about whether to go to...