Most of the humour comes from mashing two clashing worlds – the ruthless mafia culture and the clueless English tourist whose understanding of Sicily is based on pasta.
Momentum, he notes, depended on both a keen understanding of the political process and a ruthless approach to elected officials, who either joined the cause or found themselves under endless assault.
In it, Mr Buffett said, "Lose money for the firm, I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless"—a rule he said is generally applied at Berkshire.
Mr. Huston's premise, in "Skinner," is that this was a very effective way to create a ruthless, unstoppable hit man who has a backlog of psychic pain but a limited understanding of human emotions.
After all, this is a guy whose mantra is, "Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless".
(He famously delivered the following lines in his testimony before Congress on the scandal: "Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless").
It features the now-famous line, "Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless".
Dawkins (1976, p. 2) is unwise and wrong to assert that '"nature red in tooth and claw" sums up our understanding admirably' and that 'a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness.
