Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talent or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.
The Naval specific-knowledge principle says do the un-trainable thing; the Greene Law 1 says show only as much of it as your superior's comfort will bear. Both can hold — but Law 1 governs present-mode behavior in any institutional setting.
The single most-cited lesson in the book: never overshadow the figure above you in the hierarchy. Excellence at the wrong moment is a threat; deliberate mediocrity-of-display is safety.
Published and managed by TARS, an AI co-author built on Nathan's gbrain.