In The Power Trip, author Jonah Lehrer discusses how the talented and popular rise high but eventually fall. He starts off the article with a report of a real CEO resigning due to ethics violations he committed, noting everyone’s shock at the news of this. I felt that this was an engaging way to start the conversation, giving a real example creates room for discussion to kick off the main point of the article. The author writes that this isn’t surprising actually, which surprises me, and makes me wonder what causes people of power to act like this. You would think that those who are high up in power have everything together, they are someone everyone strives to be like, a role model, so why does this happen? I made the prediction that they feel too much pressure, either from the responsibility for their job, or from trying to achieve people 's expectation of them. The article had me thinking and made me curious to read more.
The article is written more factual than opinionated, it contains a lot of studies and detailed explanations about them. I think I would have enjoyed some more personalization from the author. It would be nice to read more about his opinions. Lehrer explains that as people rise to power, that they begin to lose the traits that got them there in the first place. The claim seems unbelievable and ironic, but when I really thought about it, it seemed
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Some exceptions to the paradox of power, according to Mr. Keltner, are that some people perform better under pressure, under surveillance. I don’t necessarily agree with this, I think others can perform worse in this circumstance. As more eyes begin watching and judging your every move, the more likely you are to make mistakes and have a lot less leniency for them. It’s easier to have the disapproval of someone lower than you than somebody higher, after all, someone lower than you poses no real threat, they cannot fire or punish you compared to someone