We wonder how people can get away with so much horrible stuff. I’d like to talk Evil and Agile productivity, and yes, I am completely sober as far as you know.
For those of you who are in no way familiar with me, I’m a Project Manager, a professional help-stuff-get-done-guy. While I’m being paid to be the most anal-retentive person in the room, I prefer to use Agile Methodologies, which are all about rapid, adaptable, approaches to getting things done. It doesn’t sound Evil, but stick with whatever journey I’m soberly on because I think Evil people are actually pretty good at a kind of Agile.
Many Evil people have A Goal. It may be (more) money and power, it may be dealing with their childhood traumas, and usually, it’s a dangerously pathetic combination of things like that. Agile is all about Goals because when you set them, they direct your actions more than any single plan. You gotta know where you want to go to get there.
Then, simply, Evil people set out to achieve their Goal by whatever means they can. They don’t care if they lie, cheat, steal, burn books, burn people, and so on – the Goal is what matters. Agile is also about making sure that your actions direct you toward your Goal so you’re focused and efficient – it just doesn’t involve Evil.
But what if Evil people hurt others, get caught, etc.? Simple, they lie or do something else because they don’t care – they adapt. Agile emphasizes constant adaptability and analysis as well, just with an emphasis on truth and honesty. Evil people are pretty adaptable, even if that adaptability is staying the course and lying about it until others give up.
Agile emphasizes goals, directing yourself towards them, and adaptability. Evil people do the exact same thing. The only difference is that Agile emphasizes helping people and being honest, and Evil people are just Evil.
And this is why we’re so often confused by Evil people.
We expect elaborate plans from Evil people – and there may be some – but they’re focused on their Goals and how to get there. We expect Evil people to be derailed by getting caught in lies or hurting people, but as we’ve seen they don’t care. They want something and they’ll adapt no matter the price played by other people.
It’s the banality of Evil all over again. Evil isn’t even interesting in how it gets things done.
Steven Savage