"Selective Negligence” & "Strategically Annoying"
Why you need to be "just difficult enough" to win
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Most career advice urges you to be helpful, cooperative, and easy to work with … that’s mostly right.
The straight truth is always being the “nice guy” will hold you back in your career over the long-term.
Think of negative behaviors in your career like chili peppers in food — when used carefully, they can spice your career and advance it.
I’ve learned this firsthand and seen it time and again from top performers. To maximize success, you need to learn to be difficult and disagreeable in specific ways.
Two phrases I love:
“Strategically Annoying” — coined by Alan O’Beirne (SVP of AI Innovation at Marsh McLennan). Another term is “Minimum Viable Annoyance” (MVA).
“Selective Negligence” — practiced by Brad Porter (Founder & CEO at Cobot; former Amazon VP).
Both capture an uncomfortable truth.
Even though being annoying or negligent are usually negative traits that become significant flaws if overused, they can be effective tools.
In this article, I will describe two examples and then show you how to generalize the principles for your career.