Thank you Vox. My boss is a sigma, and I will implement this in my interactions with him. One thing that I noticed about him is that he can tolerate only 1 to 2 questions a day. He always remains composed when answering them, but he would much rather I didn't bother him at all and only brought him the results of whatever task he has assigned to me.
I found Rule 8 particularly interesting. It seems like one of the hardest parts of giving feedback is accepting that your job ends once you've communicated your reasoning clearly. After that, the decision belongs to the author, even if they choose the opposite direction. Out of curiosity, has there ever been a piece of reader feedback that you initially dismissed but later realized was exactly right?
Once or twice, yes. Although it wasn't exactly helpful since it was provided after the book was already published by a major publisher, so there was nothing that could have been done about it anyhow.
In most cases, no. It's just the reader attempting to impose his values and vision for the book on me.
That's an interesting distinction. It sounds like the most useful feedback helps you see what actually made it onto the page, while the rest is often readers trying to turn the book into the one they wanted instead. Has there ever been a reader who completely misunderstood something you thought was perfectly clear, and made you rethink how you communicated it?
Working for a Sigma can be (was in my case) exhausting. Being friends with them is great. Working on a team with them is also exhausting but when the lines and roles are clear it can be very rewarding.
I laughed out loud several times, with some cringes mixed in there, reading this! It's super accurate! Looking back retrospectively, especially looking at instances before the SSH was an articulable system, I can see where I learned many of these lessons, some painfully, as a young bumbling bravo!
The sigma understands that every office is a small court, every meeting is a little theater, and every calendar invite carries a hidden demand for tribute.
He works best where he can control his attention, preserve his judgment, and produce results without joining the village drum circle of performative busyness. He does not hate teamwork. He hates the strange modern custom of turning nine adults into a committee so they can slowly discover what one competent man knew on Tuesday morning.
I definitely kept HPMOR in mind as I read DVVB. DVVB is somewhat better than HPMOR. Both are much better at having a logical magic system than JK Rowling. HPMOR is a bit more cringy, with the Ghostbuster march scene in particular. DVVB is much less didactic, which is a different kind of hero that more people can relate to. HPMOR one-shot all 8 books in 1 year, which reflected the smarter-villain he was going for. Waiting to see if there is a conspiracy afoot in DV, although the villains so far are reasonable.
Probably got poisoned by pop culture. But everytime Dreadmoore was talking, I kept wondering when he will turn bad.
Here are two Dreadmoor quotes which illustrate his character:
Chapter 19: “You know, I never liked you, Diana.”
Chapter 20: "But I don’t recommend you tell [your grandfather] anything about, you know, that other thing. That should be kept between you, me, and the proverbial sycamore tree.”
I notice a corollary of "8. Never hide information" that throws people off is the timeframe of the response. My sigma friend hates being reminded over and over again about what you CAN do, or a reminder, and he heard you the first time, and he considers your information binding at a later date.
Normie.
Girl: Here's your wrench, also I can get you a drink
Normie: Wow thanks! Um...that drink, go ahead, put it on the counter!
Girl: Sure thing! Do you want lemonade or soda
Normie: Uh I'll take the soda
Girl: Sure thing! Ice or can
Normie: Can
>work doesn't start until the conversation ends
Sigma.
Girl: Here's your wrench, also I can get you a drink
Hit 12 nails on the head. This is the feedback I'm constantly having to give my direct reports.
There are many parallels to a direct military hierarchy for field operations.
I use the example that if you were to play a colony simulator game or RTS, and every time you right clicked or gave a command for a unit, they would delay and do other things. You can understand how quickly maddening this would be.
You give orders and your dwarves decide they would rather drink a beer and take a nap while a werelizard is walking unopposed into your base biting everyone.
I have a new understanding of deltas and gammas. ty.
This is the most important thing to always know and understand about Sigmas in this world. Sigmas are the most likely Social Sexual Hierarchy human male rank out of all seven of them ( Sigma, Alpha, Bravo, Delta, Gamma, Omega and Lambda) to order any person and any number of people to their deaths in a suicide mission to support the overall more important mission which includes their most beloved best friends and their most beloved wives, girlfriends and mothers of their children. So the question you need to ask yourself is if you are not doing what Sigmas want even if you are trying your best and worse yet you are not even attempting to do what the Sigmas want then how much do you think Sigmas will care if you are harmed up to and including whether you live or die?
The exclusion laws instituted in 2010-2011 across all the prefectures to target the Yakuza members and effectively deny them any ability to participate in society effectively broke the organizations. Known Yakuza members can't even go to sporting events or have a phone.
The US equivalent would be your store getting publicly condemned and fined if you let a black man even walk into it.
As the novel shows, the successful reduction of organized crime has led to its replacement by anonymous and highly decentralized crime, with some unexpected consequences.
This is a topic I had studied and have heard of such measures prior. I simply assumed they'd find a way around it.
Hey, the mob survived RICO.
How foolish of me.
There's bound to be some excellent academic reading just waiting to be found. If it could be on the level of Peter Hill's work, we'd all be in for a real treat!
Now very interested. Solving crime like that takes specialized skills, AI support, or a fortuitous break. I'm thinking of how Clifford Stoll discovered and compiled key information to break the first computer spy ring, beginning with a $0.75 accounting discrepancy.
"attempting to unravel a life in which so many people had a motive for killing the victim"
Add that to the list of reasons why those who are not sigma, really, really shouldn't desire that.
While the gamma will have plenty of people happy to see him dead, it is his frequent ineffectiveness and self-sabotage that renders him less important to bump off than the thorny vines coiling around the body that a sigma can be.
The sigma too by nature of his rank, the being outside the hierarchy is in theory more in the risk range of opportunity.
Depending on the hobbies, a panoply of "accidents" are also viable where the more sedate ranks are less vulnerable.
Thank you Vox. My boss is a sigma, and I will implement this in my interactions with him. One thing that I noticed about him is that he can tolerate only 1 to 2 questions a day. He always remains composed when answering them, but he would much rather I didn't bother him at all and only brought him the results of whatever task he has assigned to me.
I found Rule 8 particularly interesting. It seems like one of the hardest parts of giving feedback is accepting that your job ends once you've communicated your reasoning clearly. After that, the decision belongs to the author, even if they choose the opposite direction. Out of curiosity, has there ever been a piece of reader feedback that you initially dismissed but later realized was exactly right?
Once or twice, yes. Although it wasn't exactly helpful since it was provided after the book was already published by a major publisher, so there was nothing that could have been done about it anyhow.
In most cases, no. It's just the reader attempting to impose his values and vision for the book on me.
That's an interesting distinction. It sounds like the most useful feedback helps you see what actually made it onto the page, while the rest is often readers trying to turn the book into the one they wanted instead. Has there ever been a reader who completely misunderstood something you thought was perfectly clear, and made you rethink how you communicated it?
Working for a Sigma can be (was in my case) exhausting. Being friends with them is great. Working on a team with them is also exhausting but when the lines and roles are clear it can be very rewarding.
I laughed out loud several times, with some cringes mixed in there, reading this! It's super accurate! Looking back retrospectively, especially looking at instances before the SSH was an articulable system, I can see where I learned many of these lessons, some painfully, as a young bumbling bravo!
I requested to be a reviewer of one book. I was excited and then life got in the way of my reading time.
I did not email to tell vox because he did not care and was in no way waiting on me.
So, I failed the job, but was not annoying about it.
At least 50 percent of all volunteers do nothing. That's entirely normal.
One more rule. Never tell Vox he doesn’t understand something.
The sigma understands that every office is a small court, every meeting is a little theater, and every calendar invite carries a hidden demand for tribute.
He works best where he can control his attention, preserve his judgment, and produce results without joining the village drum circle of performative busyness. He does not hate teamwork. He hates the strange modern custom of turning nine adults into a committee so they can slowly discover what one competent man knew on Tuesday morning.
I definitely kept HPMOR in mind as I read DVVB. DVVB is somewhat better than HPMOR. Both are much better at having a logical magic system than JK Rowling. HPMOR is a bit more cringy, with the Ghostbuster march scene in particular. DVVB is much less didactic, which is a different kind of hero that more people can relate to. HPMOR one-shot all 8 books in 1 year, which reflected the smarter-villain he was going for. Waiting to see if there is a conspiracy afoot in DV, although the villains so far are reasonable.
Probably got poisoned by pop culture. But everytime Dreadmoore was talking, I kept wondering when he will turn bad.
Here are two Dreadmoor quotes which illustrate his character:
Chapter 19: “You know, I never liked you, Diana.”
Chapter 20: "But I don’t recommend you tell [your grandfather] anything about, you know, that other thing. That should be kept between you, me, and the proverbial sycamore tree.”
I notice a corollary of "8. Never hide information" that throws people off is the timeframe of the response. My sigma friend hates being reminded over and over again about what you CAN do, or a reminder, and he heard you the first time, and he considers your information binding at a later date.
Normie.
Girl: Here's your wrench, also I can get you a drink
Normie: Wow thanks! Um...that drink, go ahead, put it on the counter!
Girl: Sure thing! Do you want lemonade or soda
Normie: Uh I'll take the soda
Girl: Sure thing! Ice or can
Normie: Can
>work doesn't start until the conversation ends
Sigma.
Girl: Here's your wrench, also I can get you a drink
Sigma: *takes wrench*
Girl: Also I can get you a drink
Sigma: *working*
Girl: Also I can get you a drink
Sigma: What? What are you saying now?
Girl: I can get you a drink!
Sigma: Go away!
>1 hr later
Sigma: I'll take that drink now
Girl: Hmph!
Hit 12 nails on the head. This is the feedback I'm constantly having to give my direct reports.
There are many parallels to a direct military hierarchy for field operations.
I use the example that if you were to play a colony simulator game or RTS, and every time you right clicked or gave a command for a unit, they would delay and do other things. You can understand how quickly maddening this would be.
Every leader eventually learns that unclear obedience is merely rebellion.
Dwarf Fortress.
You give orders and your dwarves decide they would rather drink a beer and take a nap while a werelizard is walking unopposed into your base biting everyone.
I have a new understanding of deltas and gammas. ty.
A delayed order is just sabotage.
This is the most important thing to always know and understand about Sigmas in this world. Sigmas are the most likely Social Sexual Hierarchy human male rank out of all seven of them ( Sigma, Alpha, Bravo, Delta, Gamma, Omega and Lambda) to order any person and any number of people to their deaths in a suicide mission to support the overall more important mission which includes their most beloved best friends and their most beloved wives, girlfriends and mothers of their children. So the question you need to ask yourself is if you are not doing what Sigmas want even if you are trying your best and worse yet you are not even attempting to do what the Sigmas want then how much do you think Sigmas will care if you are harmed up to and including whether you live or die?
The sigma’s mercy ends where the mission begins.
Life long dream of being a trucker
When the gate is burning, effort matters less than movement.
"Post-Yakuza Crime"?
Ok, I'm interested.
The exclusion laws instituted in 2010-2011 across all the prefectures to target the Yakuza members and effectively deny them any ability to participate in society effectively broke the organizations. Known Yakuza members can't even go to sporting events or have a phone.
The US equivalent would be your store getting publicly condemned and fined if you let a black man even walk into it.
As the novel shows, the successful reduction of organized crime has led to its replacement by anonymous and highly decentralized crime, with some unexpected consequences.
Fascinating...
This is a topic I had studied and have heard of such measures prior. I simply assumed they'd find a way around it.
Hey, the mob survived RICO.
How foolish of me.
There's bound to be some excellent academic reading just waiting to be found. If it could be on the level of Peter Hill's work, we'd all be in for a real treat!
Now very interested. Solving crime like that takes specialized skills, AI support, or a fortuitous break. I'm thinking of how Clifford Stoll discovered and compiled key information to break the first computer spy ring, beginning with a $0.75 accounting discrepancy.
"attempting to unravel a life in which so many people had a motive for killing the victim"
Add that to the list of reasons why those who are not sigma, really, really shouldn't desire that.
While the gamma will have plenty of people happy to see him dead, it is his frequent ineffectiveness and self-sabotage that renders him less important to bump off than the thorny vines coiling around the body that a sigma can be.
The sigma too by nature of his rank, the being outside the hierarchy is in theory more in the risk range of opportunity.
Depending on the hobbies, a panoply of "accidents" are also viable where the more sedate ranks are less vulnerable.
“He’s too ineffectual to be worth killing.”