When I met various team leaders, I realized some were ridiculously political. I mean that literally—one is in the Senate now. They tried to get me to sign lengthy noncompetes. And on my first day, they went back on their promise and told me I’d have to move to Seattle. I stepped into my new, tiny, hidden office, ducked around the giant structural pole in the middle of it, and gave my notice after two weeks.

That is why the influence of the middle-class ressentiment should not be underestimated. There is, of course, a substantial gap between the ivory tower and the street - but it is equally true that what happens on university campuses filters into public spaces. I mention this because research conducted in the middle of the twentieth century showed how followers of facist movements were most likely to come from the lower strata of the middle classes who, because their strivings for self-improvement were continuously blocked, were most susceptible to developing feelings of ressentiment.

Some executives were beginning to exhibit the sort of personal leadership and commitment to change that I sought.

I needed, though, to provide support and encouragement for these risk takers. They were still surrounded by a lot of Bolsheviks who longed for the old system.

By the time he graduated from high school, Huang had skipped a grade, was a nationally competitive athlete, and had a near-perfect GPA. Yet he opted out of the college-admissions scramble, choosing to enroll at nearby Oregon State University. There wasn’t much thought behind the decision, Huang told me, and no pressure from his parents to go anywhere else. His high school buddy Dean Verheiden was a legacy Oregon State student, and Huang chose to go as well. “I just followed my best friend,” he said.

12. Boxing the Champ In

A different reporter asked Bernstein what he thought might be the implications of signing up a convicted felon, which Ali was at that point, for a book deal with such a high payout. Having anticipated the question, Bernstein pulled his pipe from his mouth, leaned across the table toward the microphone, and replied that the day publishers refused to publish controversial books would be a bad day for democracy. Random house was no stranger to controversial authors.