CLAY 400-五柳先生不是不會玩權力遊戲,是玩得比誰都高明

Catch | 接住了什麼？今天下午接到一通電話，是一個配合了十多年，每年幫他們省下至少百萬支出，降低法務風險的機構的電話，內容是說，他們中間有幾位說：「他們不知道我們做了些什麼？」不知道，難道真的是五窮六絕嗎？為什麼6月對我這麼的不友善呢？呵呵... ...。其實，配合這麼多年間，只要碰到他們內部權力要交替，就會上演這樣的劇碼，我也見怪不怪了，並不會因此而有什麼情緒上的不悅，唯一的感覺是「噁心、想吐」，又不是什麼了不起的事，有需要像豬一樣的爭食嗎？真的太噁心了！Linger | 流連這種事從我年輕入職場開始，就不是很明白，權力真有那麼香嗎？為什麼幾乎人人為之如癡如醉。後來，隨著社會的歷練，自己也嚐到一些權力的滋味之後，我才比較明白為什麼。只是，可能是我比較膽小，風險意識很高，所以在面對權力果實的時候，我更多的是去計算，這個需要我附上什麼代價？要承擔怎樣的風險？再三的比較之後，往往我都選擇扭頭就跑，因為，說實在的，我還是那種愛美人不愛江山的那種人。恬靜的田園生活才是我想要的。Associate | 串門不過話說回來，即便自己想要的只是像五柳先生一樣恬靜自牧的生活，但在現實的現代世界裡，如果我們不能先理解「權力運作」的遊戲規則，恐怕是難上加難吧。所以，當我想到這裡，就又回去看了看《五柳先生傳》的原文，我突然明白了，原來五柳先生才是真正權力遊戲的高手，原文說他：「閒靜少言，不慕榮利。好讀書，不求甚解；每有會意，便欣然忘食。性嗜酒，家貧不能常得。親舊知其如此，或置酒而招之；造飲輒盡，期在必醉。既醉而退，曾不吝情去留。」看明白了嗎？他不是不會玩「權力遊戲」，而是他太會玩了，只不過他玩的和一般人不同，對他而言，真正的贏，是「能夠一直玩下去」。如同《有限與無限的遊戲》說的一樣，有限遊戲玩的是一場「必須明確分出勝負」的賭博，而無限遊戲，則是一場無限循環的Candy Crash，只要有網路，就一直玩下去。Yield |溢流我們當然離不開這個以不爭奪就等於不積極、不上進的世界，但，我們可以學習在「上進」的過程中有意識的將自己安放在一個「我要玩下去」的意念之中，讓玩下去的意念幫你畫出那個邊界，讓想爭奪的人留在框框裡，而你在外面看的更清楚，更通透，在他們都出局的時候，你變成那個笑到最後的人。English Summary — Day 400: How to Be the One Who’s Still Laughing at the EndQuick note before we start: US listeners just hit 49% of this podcast’s audience, so starting today, I’m adding English summaries. Consider this the awkward first draft of that experiment.Today someone called about a client relationship I’ve maintained for over a decade — the kind of call where a leadership shuffle happens internally, and suddenly people who’ve never done the work start questioning what you’ve actually contributed. I’ve seen this play out enough times that it doesn’t even sting anymore. It’s not anger. It’s more like... mild disgust. Watching people scramble for power like it’s the last plate of food at a buffet.This sent me back to an old Chinese text, The Biography of Mr. Five Willows — about a man who lived quietly, read for pleasure rather than mastery, drank when invited and left without hesitation, never chasing status or wealth. I used to think he simply opted out of the power game. But rereading it today, I realized: he wasn’t bad at playing power games. He was better at it than anyone — because he understood the real win isn’t beating everyone else. It’s being able to keep playing, indefinitely.That’s the difference between a finite game (win, lose, game over) and an infinite game (the point is just to keep the game going). Most people around you are playing finite games — scrambling, competing, trying to “win” some fixed contest. You don’t have to reject ambition to opt out of that. You can stay ambitious, but anchor yourself in the intention of “I want to keep playing this game” — and let that intention quietly draw the boundary for you. Let the people fighting over the plate stay inside their own frame. You get to watch from outside it, clear-eyed, and when they’ve all knocked each other out — you’re still there. Still playing. Still laughing.PENS is a perception framework I’ve been building for years, finally given words through phenomenology and hermeneutics: Perception, Epoché (suspending judgment), Narrative, Symphony.CLAY is my daily writing framework: Catch (what flickered by — a strange thought, an image, a feeling), Linger (what makes me reluctant to leave?), Associate (who came to visit?), Yield (it’s full — what spilled out?).Waiting, and letting meaning surface on its own. Slowly becoming human again, instead of a machine.橘胖 · CLAY for You — translating your life into your own language.Want to talk? Just reply. I read everything.Honestly my English is held together with tape and hope, so this summary was ghostwritten by Claude. Grammar’s on him, the five-willows wisdom is still all mine.PENS是我這幾年一直在做，卻始終找不到可以說清楚的一個「感知框架」，然後在今年，我從現象學與詮釋學中找到了，他們分別是Perception — 感知 Epoché — 懸置判斷 Narrative — 敘事 Symphony — 和聲（交響樂）。CLAY： Catch｜接住 — 那個閃過的奇怪念頭、畫面、感受 Linger｜流連 — 捨不得走的是什麼？ Associate｜串門 — 誰來串門了？ Yield｜溢流 — 滿了，流出來了什麼？守候，讓意義自己浮現。慢慢的讓我們從機器變回人。橘胖 · 譯劉｜CLAY for You 把你的生命，譯成你自己的語言想聊就來，直接回信，我會看。 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kitsudad.substack.com