The emergent politics in a large organization are kayfabe, which is kind of like LARPing.

LARPing is Live Action Role Play.

Historical reenactments are similar.

A key distinction: if you die in the LARP, you don't die in real life… you just have to pretend to die.

If anyone saw you get hit, you're obliged to pretend to be dead.

The more people who saw you get hit, the stronger the obligation.

But if no one saw you get hit, you can just… keep on going.

The kayfabe in an organization feels deadly real, but it's more akin to a LARP than we often believe.

If you "die" in the organization, you're still alive in the surrounding context.

This means that there are often clever moves you can do that look risky, but have capped downside.

Some people would rather have an "obnoxious aggression" culture than a "manipulative insincerity" to navigate.

I'm the opposite.

In a manipulative insincerity kind of environment, there are a lot more LARP moves.

People are unlikely to land visible "killing blows" in such an environment.

You can take advantage of that ambiguity to surf through and survive what should have been a game over.

The ambiguity is thick and swirling, but it also gives more space to deftly surf it.