Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people’s weaknesses.

The two moves of being clever about people are hiding your own faults and locating everyone else’s. Both feel like strength and both are defensive: the hiding means the faults never get repaired, and the searching means you spend your attention on other people’s soft spots rather than on anything you could build. It is a skill that works and leaves you no better than you were.

Name one defect you have been concealing and tell one person about it deliberately. Nothing bad usually happens, and the effort you were spending on concealment comes back to you. Then notice how much of your thinking about colleagues is inventory of their weaknesses.