People Management: The Price of a Man

Everyone has a price. This is not in the usual context that people think of. We’re not dealing with slavery or human trafficking. We’re not even dealing with the inherent value that the individual has. We’re talking about bribery and blackmail. Everyone has a price that will get them to compromise their boundaries in order […]

Pick a Card, Any Card: The Illusion of Choice.

“Pick a card any card, I bet you can’t pull it. Golden State, number one with a bullet.” — 3 Card Molly by Xzibit featuring Saafir and Ras Kass. The shell game or three card molly is one of the most recognizable street gambling games. This is one of the first slight of hand swindler […]

The Power of Shadows: Perception and Reality

Shadows have been used as examples for thousands of years. They’ve been used as metaphors, entertainment, almost anything you could imagine. However shadows and the control of light can influence how we see and understand things. So today we’re going to be talking about how the shadow cast by a thing can be used to […]

Manipulation: Effort Leaches

We’ll encounter people in our lives that will try to use us to achieve their own goals by taking our efforts. This type of manipulation happens when people view others as expendable tools. Something to be risked without fear of loss. Today’s example comes from Fallout: New Vegas, one of my recent games. I’ve been […]

Just a Friendly Conversation.

There’s nothing like defusing a situation that can save time. It rolls risk assessment and people skills all into one, resulting in saving your resources and effort. Being able to talk your way out of a situation is handy skill. Things like Dungeons & Dragons help develop that skill and allow for people to learn […]

Manipulation Vs Coercion

A lot concepts are linked together and the terms used to describe them are thought to be interchangeable when they are not. The concept we’re dealing with today is getting someone to do something you want, but they might not want to. We have two methods to achieve this: direct force and indirect effort. These […]

False Equivalency: A Problem of Bias and Misinterpretation.

There’s very few things that make me irritated with life. This is mostly when a false equivalency is made by an individual or group. First off what is equivalency? Equivalency is when a process indicates the logical conclusion in a series or equation. For example A+B=C, if we know what A and C are we […]

Luminous Night: Playing To Your Strengths

My first and favorite character to play in Dungeons & Dragons is a hugely home-brewed Orc Paladin, a bit of a rarity in a plain vanilla D&D campaign, but those are generally avoided. This character is more reflective of me as an individual like the rest of party also chosen for this campaign. It’s interesting […]

Management and Manipulation: Violation of Conscience.

Today on Management Monday we’ll be talking about a bit of time management and manipulation, specifically in regards to people and their beliefs. I just got off of a week long religious holiday that I’ve been keeping since I was a child. This practice is one of the main tenants of the practice of my […]

Telling a Good Story: Manipulation and Entertainment

So I’ve been watching anime recently, predominately because I can watch it cheaply online, choose what I watch, choose when I watch, and because nothing on T.V. has really caught my attention. And since I’ve done things with fiction writing and analysis in the past I can’t help but analyze the shows I’ve been watching. […]