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#leadership#management#giversandtakers

DICKS: Do you need to be one to be a successful leader?

Max Joseph

583K subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Max Joseph, filmmaker
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

2.1M views9 years ago3 recommendations

Careers and interviewsTools and practiceEngineering managementCode review and teamworkCareer growth

Max Joseph explores whether demanding, difficult personalities are necessary for successful leadership, drawing on psychology, management theories, and famous directors.

This is a question that has been eating away at me for a long time, so I decided to make a movie about it. This is also the first video in a new series I am doing. Follow me on Vero to see the rest: get.vero.co/maxjosephxvero PS if you want to discuss the themes or ideas in this follow me on Vero. Much more likely to see and respond there. Animation by Marina Valentina: marinavalentina.com/ Additional Animation by Ben Chapin: bendchapin.com/ Music by Jonathan Zalben: jonathanzalben.com/ BOOKS: Adam Grant's book "Give and Take" - amazon.com/Give-Take-Helping-Others-Success/dp/0143124986/re… Robert Greene's book "The 48 Laws of Power" - amazon.com/48-Laws-Power-Robert-Greene/dp/0140280197/ref=sr_… Michael Maccoby's book "Narcissistic Leaders" - amazon.com/Narcissistic-Leaders-Who-Succeeds-Fails/dp/142210… Aaron James' book "Assholes: A Theory" - amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-key…

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an insightful documentary exploring the dynamics of demanding leadership styles versus collaborative management.

whitepoplaron Hacker News • Recommends

On “What I Learned from Having Steve Jobs Swear at Me”

For anyone who's curious, here's the best video I've found that breaks apart the idea of an "asshole": link to this video Essentially, people can be dicks and non-dicks, while simultaneously being givers or takers. Nobody likes a taker, even if they're nice, because that person doesn't help one grow. On the other hand, someone can be a real dick, but in a "giving" way that helps achieve a better outcome for both individuals. In the case of Jobs, one could argue that his personality was justified not only because great work came out of it, but also because the people doing that work became the best version of themselves in the process. If someone is capable of great work and they produce good work, ther…

azhenleyon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Career advice I wish I’d been given when I was young”

Being pleasant is one of my personal rules/goals for life. But it is interesting to analyze great leaders who have been jerks. This 30 minute Youtube documentary on the topic is very interesting: "DICKS: Do you need to be one to be a successful leader?" link to this video

ak39on Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Great Asshole Fallacy”

I think the writer is correct: there is a meme out there that in order to be great, a leader, a trailblazer etc you have to become inevitably the arsehole. So much so, that arseholism is not just tolerated but celebrated. I wonder why the author did not feel persuaded to mention our current poster child of arseholism, the quintessential kind: Donald Trump. Here's a good video essay on the same subject by a filmmaker, Max Joseph: link to this video

softfalconon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Be More Unlikeable”

This reminds me of a short documentary called "DICKS: Do you need to be one to be a successful leader?" link to this video tldr; You don't have to be a dick, but being a strong and passionate leader will result in making tough choices that will inevitably not make everyone happy. tldr 2; People don't want a boss who is a friend, they want a leader with a vision.