And the Nice Shall be First....Eventually

(Drawing from memecenter.com)

"Nice guys finish last" is a saying attributed to baseball-is-war Dodgers manager Leo Durocher in the 1940's. The saying resonates with experience because everyone knows "winners" who use any means to reach the top. But is "nice guys finish last" mostly true?

Wharton psychologist Adam Grant found that in a study of engineers, salespeople and medical school students

the most generous people were overrepresented in both the bottom 25% of their field and the top 25%. As Grant put it, “Good guys and gals have a better chance of finishing last than the rest of us, but also better odds of finishing first. [bold added]”

Professor Grant divides people into three categories: Takers, Givers, and Matchers. The first two are self-explanatory, while Matchers transact interpersonally on a quid pro quo basis. (In real life there's probably no one who behaves all the time as a Taker, Giver, or Matcher.) Though very few Givers behave that way out of cold calculation, generosity can inure to one's benefit in the long run:

being overly generous towards other people can be harmful in the short run, if it outweighs personal goals and needs. But it will pay dividends later with the skills the Givers acquire along the way and the goodwill they engender.

“You actually learn things through helping other people solve their problems,” Grant said. “And there’s a social capital upside… but they don’t happen right away.”

And what about the jerks who finish first? "Takers, on the other hand, tend to rise fast and fall just as quickly."

In related news, Donald Trump, whose most famous catchphrase is "You're fired", saw that his lead has softened significantly over other Republican candidates for President.