--- product_id: 124165115 title: "The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2)" price: "$27.24" currency: USD in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.us/products/124165115-the-gervais-principle-the-complete-series-with-a-bonus-essay store_origin: US region: United States of America --- # The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2) **Price:** $27.24 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2) - **How much does it cost?** $27.24 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.us](https://www.desertcart.us/products/124165115-the-gervais-principle-the-complete-series-with-a-bonus-essay) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2) - Kindle edition by Rao, Venkatesh. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2). Review: Rao is a genius - Never read the articles when they went viral but stumbled upon this book while looking for more John Gall / Nassim Taleb esque counter-intuitive ways of thinking about systems as pathologies (due to intrinsic chaos, liability transfer, and the vast majority of people totally blind to the pathology).. Rao tackles the organization as a pathological system and fragments its members into 3 buckets of people - the losers, the clueless, and the sociopaths. In terms of org structure they're the low level workforce, the middle managers, and the leaders. All I'm gonna say is when I read the chapter where he extends the buckets of people to archetypal belief systems and the order/chaos paradigm, I thought, Rao is a genius. In a nutshell, the losers are Dionysian in nature (driven by emotions), the clueless are Apollonian (rationalists who believe in the company's rules), and the sociopaths are the ones who ascend to leadership positions by manipulating Dionysian and Apollonian forces in the workplace so that they create the emotional boundaries losers need to be happy and the logical structure the clueless need to be happy.. The ways in which the sociopaths ascend to power is sociopathic because in doing so, they use the organizational bureaucracy to transfer liabilities to the other two groups while taking credit for successes (basically the asymmetrical ethics issue in Taleb's Skin in the Game). Note that this is Darwinian in nature. Rao then leaves it at that - the organization is a naturally unethical, pathological system that can't be fixed. That last part I disagree with, but other than Taleb, I don't know many people who've written about the ethics of asymmetry. But there's something that needs to be said for the fact asymmetry can and does come back to haunt many sociopaths. Review: Very good overall but "The Office" references were distracting - There is a lot of here here. Particularly for those who work in the public sector. I am a "Looser" and I have been surrounded by both the clueless and Sociopaths for 10 years now, though I did not know to call them such. This book mostly confirmed and enunciated a lot of what I already knew or instinctively assimilated. But it was nice to give it some structure. The constant references to the office ended up a distraction because I had never watched the show, and he only describes the episode, he does not give the title so I would have to watch 100 hours a video to be able to understand what he was talking about. Unfortunately the extremes intended as satire in "The Office" are common or even weak gruel in my organization, so the show wasn't an escape for me. It was just a reminder of what I went through at work all day, dodging the booby traps and ambushes from Sociopaths, pushing on string to get the clueless to perform. But, 4 Stars for the science behind the book. ## Images ![The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71vqp0V4BEL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rao is a genius *by J***A on March 26, 2018* Never read the articles when they went viral but stumbled upon this book while looking for more John Gall / Nassim Taleb esque counter-intuitive ways of thinking about systems as pathologies (due to intrinsic chaos, liability transfer, and the vast majority of people totally blind to the pathology).. Rao tackles the organization as a pathological system and fragments its members into 3 buckets of people - the losers, the clueless, and the sociopaths. In terms of org structure they're the low level workforce, the middle managers, and the leaders. All I'm gonna say is when I read the chapter where he extends the buckets of people to archetypal belief systems and the order/chaos paradigm, I thought, Rao is a genius. In a nutshell, the losers are Dionysian in nature (driven by emotions), the clueless are Apollonian (rationalists who believe in the company's rules), and the sociopaths are the ones who ascend to leadership positions by manipulating Dionysian and Apollonian forces in the workplace so that they create the emotional boundaries losers need to be happy and the logical structure the clueless need to be happy.. The ways in which the sociopaths ascend to power is sociopathic because in doing so, they use the organizational bureaucracy to transfer liabilities to the other two groups while taking credit for successes (basically the asymmetrical ethics issue in Taleb's Skin in the Game). Note that this is Darwinian in nature. Rao then leaves it at that - the organization is a naturally unethical, pathological system that can't be fixed. That last part I disagree with, but other than Taleb, I don't know many people who've written about the ethics of asymmetry. But there's something that needs to be said for the fact asymmetry can and does come back to haunt many sociopaths. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very good overall but "The Office" references were distracting *by K***E on March 9, 2014* There is a lot of here here. Particularly for those who work in the public sector. I am a "Looser" and I have been surrounded by both the clueless and Sociopaths for 10 years now, though I did not know to call them such. This book mostly confirmed and enunciated a lot of what I already knew or instinctively assimilated. But it was nice to give it some structure. The constant references to the office ended up a distraction because I had never watched the show, and he only describes the episode, he does not give the title so I would have to watch 100 hours a video to be able to understand what he was talking about. Unfortunately the extremes intended as satire in "The Office" are common or even weak gruel in my organization, so the show wasn't an escape for me. It was just a reminder of what I went through at work all day, dodging the booby traps and ambushes from Sociopaths, pushing on string to get the clueless to perform. But, 4 Stars for the science behind the book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hilarious, sobering, and dangerous at the same time *by A***R on November 27, 2022* It’s great fun to break down the absurd world of the office and watch the author frame it all up in terms of his organizational model. If you’re a loser looking for an exit, this could be your book. If you’re a wannabe sociopath, ditto, read on. Clueless people won’t even read this, but you should be able to detect them when you’re done. You’re in one of those three groups, so settle in. Should we take this book seriously? You be the judge! If we do, will it be the end of corporate life as we know it? Maybe! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.us/products/124165115-the-gervais-principle-the-complete-series-with-a-bonus-essay](https://www.desertcart.us/products/124165115-the-gervais-principle-the-complete-series-with-a-bonus-essay) --- *Product available on Desertcart United States of America* *Store origin: US* *Last updated: 2026-05-21*