the devil, they say, is in the details. there is a person, anonymized as joe, who made a critical and critical cognitive error. yes, they were critical in polysemy. i was congratulating a colleague for a fundamentally important first deliverable. the colleague is not even old enough to drink and is barely figuring out the world of business. but instead of congratulating the young person, joe attacked my method of delivery and the (misunderstood) semantics of my words. i want so badly to slap joe back. but i won’t. i will spill my vitriol here. i am not truly angry, but i do need to vent so that this poison does not kill me. also, i need to observe and analyze. those are the first principles of success. take opportunities not to attack but to learn defensive strategies. do not climb into the ring. instead, manage the prize fighter and take your cut of the earnings. live in a lovely house on the beach while the prize fighter dies of dementia related to cte (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). i will take advantage. it’s okay. i do not need to be the victim all the time. i can be the passive or sometimes more than passive recipient. after all, joe wants a fight. let joe fight with someone else. i will smile and watch joe fall unconscious from head trauma over and over. and when joe falls permanently, i will be there to replace that spot with a new prize fighter.