14.1. Rehabilitating the metis: a natural operating mode

“The victory over an undulating reality, which its continuous metamorphoses make almost elusive, can only be obtained through increased mobility, an even greater power of transformation” [DÉT 74, p. 28].

“Your competitors have faster horses, but they don’t know how to use more skill than you do. Courage then, friend; remember in your soul all the means of skill, so that the price may not escape you” [HOM 13, xxiii, p. 508].

“The general must be sure that he can dominate the situation to his advantage, as circumstances require. He is not bound by fixed procedures” (Sun Tzu, VIII, 9).

“Jobs is a complex person; his manipulative side is the hidden side of everything that makes him successful” – Stephen Wozniack¹.

Over the past 3 years, 900 managers or top managers have assessed their performance skills. By performance, we mean the sum of the skills-abilities, which, in the light of an expected result, follows the course of things (the trend), fecundates potential (che) and deploys weaves as much as the resource of said skills-abilities according to the utility required by the situation. Let us recall that performance is thought in terms of consequence. The results show that certain skills inherent in the extra-personal MO.O.N., such as perceiving forces in action (tékmōr), being resourceful (panoûrgos), pretending (dòlos) and non-acting (wuwei, 無為; polutropos) are not operative (and not inoperative). These operating principles are neither embodied (representative) nor perceived (emulated) by these managers. This escapes their reason (in the sense of the logos), knowledge and practice. They can neither conceptualize nor perceive the “way” in which it “works”. Their points of reference make them “cling” onto traditional and reassuring scientific, mathematical and ontological principles as much as possible, because they are known and mastered, somewhat similarly to how a swimmer would try to cling to a rock while the swell and currents push them out towards a more distant beach. However, when the swimmer manages to embody-perceive the underpinning of this MO.O.N., in other words, when they manage to emulate-conceptualize the modus operandi and the expected results, the first ability they will unanimously choose is non-action. Logic, in fact, is not a tool of thought adapted to the fluctuation or sprawl of events, whereas metis, as a mode of operation whose vivacity is similar to events, is (pròs tà sumbainonta agchinoum).

By proposing this natural operating mode as a possible tenth MO.O.N., we participate in developing our knowledge of human, animal and plant diversity, not only in its Western sense (intelligence-talent), but also in that which is initiated, refined, deployed and multiplied with reality.

As we have discussed, only what can be named exists (for the mind).

When Plato and Socrates, through their bitter and belligerent attacks on the metis, criticized and humiliated Hippias, the last defender of Odysseus and Homer, the intention was unambiguous: “to destroy” the metis and everything it refers to. In doing so, and by introducing a new semantic model, they banished a part of the Greeks’ existence from the collective memory, in other words, the competencies, skills, observational abilities and capabilities to embrace reality (the course of things), otherwise known as the process, named by the Chinese. For that, they removed the semantic edifice referring to it. However, some words, too prominent in newly quoted ideas, or difficult to distort, have been replaced by Plato. This translates into a radical change in the meaning and signification of a word, somewhat similarly to a situation when a person or an institution takes possession of a house by dismissing its owners, deleting and replacing official property documents and having the latter’s names replaced with new ones. This is what it does, for example, with the words “technical”, “method” and “knowledge”. Perhaps it is time and right to return the property to its rightful owners.

The naturalist Pierre-Paul Grassé, in his work on the termite, shows that the termite worker does not direct their work, but the work directs them. It is not people who are “intelligent” or “talented”, it is situations, utility and potential that attract operating modes consistent with the most just result that is consistent with the current reality and which participates in calling people “intelligent” and/or “talented”, that is, (finally) operating.

14.2. Before intelligence, the metis: from Metis to Plato

“Whoever knows the trick (kérdē) wins, even if their horses are mediocre” [DÉT 74, p. 19].

The concept of intelligence was actualized by the Greeks over several centuries. However, in the face of the emerging philosophy and the future power of the mind (nous) carried by mathematics and logic, another form of operation had long been operating: the metis. Applying the word intelligence to the metis seems unsuitable for us; how does one affix a word whose concept is not formalized on an active operating principle, which was named more than six centuries before the Common Era? Metis (not métis) is the word given to a natural tentacular and multiple mode of operation, making it possible to operate in an oblique and economic way.

The common name metis extends the proper name of Zeus’ first wife, Metis, daughter of Thétis and Okeanos. Zeus swallowed Metis after having deceived her, for fear of one day being dethroned by the son to whom she would give birth. He thus became the mētieta, the strategist god, whose powers of anticipation are capable of thwarting all tricks before they are even “thought of”, by the ability to perceive the premises offered by indications and the weak signals in the course of things. The metis is principally a threat to any established order, because its operating principle “is deployed in the field of movement and the unexpected, in order to better turn situations upside down and to upset hierarchies that seem solid)” [DÉT 74, p. 106]. Athena, the Goddess with pers-colored eyes, daughter of Metis and Zeus, as powerful a technician (sollertia) as a formidable warrior, is feared and admired for her polumetis (multiple stratagem). She contributed to the glory of generals and strategists of the 4th Century by deploying all the means specific to trickery (mēchanàs haimúlas). She was the advisor and protector of Odysseus, king and wanderer, as well as his mentor, in order to lead Telemachus in his quest to find his father. Athena is also known as Aithuia, the name of a sea crow known for its ability to navigate from one end of the ocean to the other using an ability that will be recognized to navigators, the ithunein (direct, straighten, lead straight by forecast and focused on the result).

The metis is the exact opposite of stability and permanence symbolized by Zeus’ new wife, Themis. Plato, the “worthy descendant” of this Goddess, would deploy all the resource that philosophy and mathematical logic offer, in order to bitterly fight any reference to the metis. Indeed, two principles that oppose everything cannot coexist in one world. In the implication of this “relentlessness”, Plato wanted to finish with the old world, which he saw as tentacular and elusive, therefore incompatible with the fixed, the right and the perfect:

“Although Plato takes so much care to detail the components of the metis, it is only in order to better explain the reasons that oblige him to condemn this form of intelligence. He must denounce at length the misery, the impotence and above all the nuisance of oblique procedures, distorted paths and the tricks of approximation. It is in the name of this Truth alone, affirmed by philosophy, that the various modalities of practical intelligence are united in a single and decisive condemnation” [DÉT 74, p. 304].

NOTE.– The metis, like intelligence, are concepts. One is oriented towards an oblique and economic operating practice activated by reality. The other is oriented towards a logical and demonstrative operation activated by the activity of the mind (nous).

In the world of humans, Nestor, a master in metis, gives advice to his son Antiloque in order to win the race that will allow him to confront more powerful and experienced competitors, such as Menelaus. Let us remember that Antiloque was educated by Zeus and Poseidon in the art of driving a chariot and that he, dare we write, “attended a good school”. However, some knowledge, however specialized, is not enough against the following three kairois of a racetrack: 1) aphésis (the start); 2) kamptron (the turn) and 3) terma (the finish line). Nestor, weighted by his tentacular experience and imbued with a powerful metis (leptē), provided simple and judicious strategic advice. In the extract from the Iliad, Nestor the Great Polumetis, says:

“Antiloque, from your youth you were loved by Zeus and Poseidon, and these gods taught you all the ways of leading chariots. So there’s not much need to educate you. You know how to turn your chariot around the bollards. But your horses are very slow to race, and I sense some misfortune there. Your competitors have faster horses, but they don’t know how to use more skill than you do. Courage then, friend; remember in your mind all the means of skill, so that the prizes do not escape you. It is by skill that the lumberjack prevails over his rivals, rather than by force. It is by force of skill that the pilot directs an agile nave, tossed by the winds, on the wine-colored sea. It is lastly by skill that the coachman surpasses the coachman. But the coachman who, relying recklessly on his horses and his carriage, turns at random and too far away, will see his horses get lost in the race and will not control them. As for the one who knows what his advantage is, while pushing inferior horses, he does not look away from the bollards and turns it closely; neither does he forget how necessary it is at the beginning, under the leather reins, to lengthen the gallop, then drive his chariot without stumbling, in addition to observing the one which precedes him. I will also clearly explain to you what serves as a milestone; it will not escape you. It is a dried trunk, of oak or fir, which rises from the ground to the height of a breaststroke, and on which rains have not rotted the wood. On each side, two white stones are supported at the corner of the course. All around it, the track is united. This is where there is either the tomb of a long-dead mortal or a landmark erected by the people from another time. But today, the divine Achilles, with tireless feet, has designated it as a landmark. So skim it, push your chariot and horses close to it. Lean over the well weaved ramp of your chariot, slightly to the left of the horses; prick and exhort the horse on the right, and let go of its reins. As for the bollard, let your left horse skim it as it passes, so that the hub of the well-made wheel touches the surface! However, avoid hitting the stone for fear of hurting your horses and breaking your chariot: it would be a joy for others and shame for yourself. So then, my friend, think and beware. For if, when you tighten it closely, you pass the bollard by pushing your horses, there is no one chasing after you who can reach you or surpass you, even if the divine Arion, the fast and divine horse that Adraste possessed, or the horses of Laomedon, the best-fed horses in this area, are pushing behind you” [HOM 13, xxiii, pp. 507–509].

The question is not (therefore) to have confidence in oneself, to know and master the best techniques, possess the perfect material or mobilize some high knowledge, but to take advantage of the terrain (the three kairois). In other words, rather than making long chains of reasoning and using an intelligible tool such as calculation (mathesis-logismos) or knowledge (epistême) to “know” how to react-act to the representation of the situation or to make an introspection “in itself” in order to know if we are able to “do that”, the extra-personal mode of operation eliminates the intermediary of representation. It appreciates (ji) the trending resource inherent in visible and non-visible perceptible signals, and then without putting forward any (unnecessary) questions, it initiates the adapted operation where it is appropriate. Nothing is reflected from the viewpoint of mathematical logic, and yet nothing is not analyzed (li). Hence, for example, the metis is associated with terms like awakened (agrupnos), full of finesse (polupaipolos), leaves nothing to chance (aphradeos), prompt (kraipnóteros) and conjecture (tekmairesthai).

The manifestation of this mode of operation can be read not only in the Sun Tzu, but also in characters such as Mao Tsé-Toung:

“He who wants to score a point follows a long and winding route and turns it into a short track. He turns misfortune to his advantage. He deceives and abuses the enemy, in order to incite him to delay and neglect, then, he advances quickly” (Ibidem VII, 3), says the first.

“Things happen in a tortuous way, and never in a straight line and in an equal way” [MAO 60, p. 159], says the second.

The proximity between the metis (extra-personnel operating mode) and the Chinese operation (ling, 領) seems coherent and acceptable to us, not because we want it to, but because the Chinese political, strategic and commercial principles are similar to the Greek metis principles (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2: China-Western operating proximity (ling-metis)). Thus, ling fan finds its Greek equivalent with the Greek principle through the word euchéreia (agile, skillful, dexterity), ling xing finds its equivalence with the word agrupnos (awake-available) phroneon (which the situation makes cautious) as well as aphradeos (leaves nothing to chance, acts thoughtfully (to be taken in the Chinese sense of assessing-analyzing, ji-li)) and so on.

14.3. The metis, the classification of a hundred Greek words and expressions

During our thesis work on strategies for actualizing potential, we studied and classified 103 Greek expressions and words referring to the metis. For this, we relied on the work of Marcel Détienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, supported by the work of François Jullien. The purpose of this work was to propose a classification favorable to the organization of operational dynamics in the field of potential actualization. These expressions and words, for which the meaning and signification have almost all disappeared today in favor of logical-ontological semantics, re-create a resource of thought that makes it possible to observe and name what was forgotten, negated and condemned. We believe that this semantics, a treasure from an ancient time, allows us to explain and re-found many subjects and debates concerning the “intelligence” of animals, humans and plants. By giving “life” and place to this specific semantics, the signifiers and their “forgotten” meanings, which are observable and assessable in the animal, vegetable and human worlds, give potential to a “reality” that can once again be thought of. While these meanings of yesteryear were not named, almost everything related to human, animal and plant activities, operating outside the classical Greek model, was secluded, mocked and disregarded. Our work consisted of restoring as well as renovating this heritage of our semantic-consonant language. In doing so, we began the rehabilitation of a natural operating mode, which, through oblivion and ignorance, was abusively associated with immoral, deceitful and asocial values.

We have classified approximately a hundred words and expressions in the ability category because of the dynamic and circumstantial principle of the metis. Although we refer to our rule of classification², we will attribute the A^s family (Ability^skill) to the metis, in other words, all of the operating modes likely to lead any activity to having an immediate and meshed proximity with reality. We will provide several concrete examples in the following sections. This work will then lead us to organize the abilities of the metis into six families. The choice was made with regard to the utility and the result. The number six is proposed a posteriori, following the process of organization and then classification. We then named the metis, extra-personal MO.O.N., because of the ability (A^s) to operate apart from ontological-psychological and logical-geometric considerations. Extra-personal designates an exteriority to the autos and pure logos:

• – situational abilities inherent in situations, weather hazards, long journeys and activities whose complexity correlates with reality;
• – inventive abilities able to find solutions, biases, tricks and resources, as well as able to reduce the gap between a situation and the expected result;
• – mnemonic abilities able to use the experience that has been observed, capitalized and densified by use, from the world of animals, vegetables, other humans and situations to develop-densify-speculate, in order to act-not-act with flexibility and agility³;
• – practical abilities imply a correlation between the gesture-situation and the expected result. This family of skills is observed over short (called effective) or, if necessary, long(er) periods (called efficient);
• – anticipatory abilities assess the gap between what comes and what goes (lai-qu) and aim to regulate this gap so that the expected result is “acceptable”. This family of abilities involves a specific temporality (duration, yu-zhou) by observation-analysis (fugitive measure, oligokairos), as well as scrutinizing and monitoring (in the sense of continuation, tong), in order to “gather” the “as soon as” (kairos);
• – operative abilities concern abilities involving an undulating, moving, fast, slow (in consciousness, caution) dimension.

Table 14.1 summarizes the six skills of the metis in a synthetic manner.

We have associated the term ability with the gestural-situational pair. The term gestural (gestus) can be understood in its dynamic principle (movement) with regard to a C.U.P., and not, for example, an isolated sequence of a body part to perform an activity (see kinesthetic MO.O.N.).

NOTE.– The natural extra-personal operating mode is apprehended, observed and assessed by its capacity to embrace reality, that is, to operate, think and not act (wuwei) in such a way that circumstances (never) take over or (never) surprise the person. The expression explaining this aspect of the extra-personal MO.O.N. (the metis) is pròs tà sumbainonta agchinoum. This can be translated into the popular expression “always get back up on your feet”.

Tentacular and multiple are the core components of the extra-personal MO.O.N. Tentacular refers to the ability to unfold, undulate and retract in real situations. This skill is illustrated by notions such as peîrar (identifying references and routes), pantoious dólous (skilled in various tricks), ágrupnos (awake, available-alert to reality), pantopóros (to elaborate a path of resources), eúporos ((who) shows themself to be cunning enough to discover each trap, each obstructive situation, a way out) and aiólē (undulating, modifying in real time without defining it). The tentacular concept is also understood in Chinese thought through notions such as wuwei er wu bu wei (compose/embrace circumstances), che (bring to one’s advantage), bian er tong (modify so that the process can continue) or even the er particle, in its principle of pivoting a reality in making (adversarial and consecutive), or of a reversal of the tendency and the conversion of one into the other.

The multiple concept refers to the ability to identify, perceive and scrutinize the indescribable and then grasp the range of potential to ensure propensity. It is also the ability to take multiple forms (polútropos), in order to adapt to a situation and/or explore it in multiple ways. Odysseus, Mentor, Athena, Zeus and Metis illustrated this tentacular-multiple couple in Western culture. In their representations, the Olympian Gods were multiple, undulating and tentacular, a mode of operation incompatible with the law, the fixed and the determined. Odysseus stated that outis (nobody) is elusive and multiple. Being no one, he becomes everyone; not the one who swaps his jacket out according to events (l’ephēmeros), but the one who asserts himself through his control and whose instability is only a decoy (polūtropos).

For fans of series, the characters that can represent anyone or embody the polūtropos are legion, and thus we “admire” their dexterity (euchéreia) to thwart the evil tricks that people and circumstances sow, and sometimes, even some divinities: from Fantômas to The Pretender⁵, from Sherlock (the BBC series) to Arya Stark from Game of Thrones⁶, while she shares her time with the “Faceless Men”, those who by definition are “no one”, Zorro (whose name is Spanish for fox), the fast (koûphos), the leaper (skáros), known for weaving his plan so as not to get caught (plekein) and is cunning like a fox (alopex), to the “famous” MacGyver.

Whoever deploys an extra-personal MO.O.N. is “like” the Homeric “person of a thousand tricks”, capable of foiling evil tricks (negative tendencies) inherent in events: “the person of a thousand tricks, a metis whose flexibility seems to bend to the circumstances only so they can dominate them even more” [DÉT 74, p. 49].

Isn’t this what the schoolchild does? They trick and mobilize tentacular-multiple skills (oblique-economical) in order to escape the obligation of learning their homework, for their own control. Similarly, the manager, in order to achieve the given result by their N+1 (their superior) with a maximum of economy (even though they receive a maximum of pressure), circumvents the weight of the processes by using various tricks and thus “controls” the gap with the current tendency due to the impasse of the discussions. This is because if there is one key principle of this MO.O.N., then it is economy, in other words, using the least effort. Not the least immoral and despicable effort (one who does nothing and pockets their hands or looks away while waiting for something to happen to them), but the least effort to deviate as little as possible from the course of things. The intention is to find the (most) efficient way to achieve the desired result. On the one hand, there is the use of the eikázein skill, that is, the ability to “form the most accurate ideas about the broadest perspectives”, produces conjectural knowledge. On the other hand, there is the deployment of the ability known as agkulomētēs, in other words, the combination of the metis torve (oblique) with the most rectitude, the way that leads the project to its effective realization [DÉT 74]. There is an acceptable proximity here with Chinese propensity. The growth by which the inevitable can “only” occur is not by a projection (ideal) of a perfect plan (eidos) in reality, but by the ability to rely on the tendency of reality (che) in order to actualize what is favorable. The latter promotes the sedimentation of competency useful to the principle of economy (efficient, operating, effortless, forceful, direct). The more difficult the situation, the less force is needed (Y) (euchéreia/eustochia); therefore, it is necessary to mobilize more memory (tekmairesthai/promêtheia), which leads to taking less time (agchinoia) and consequently producing more effect (enkukleîn). Figure 14.1 illustrates this principle⁷.

The tentacular-multiple pair is principally the exact opposite of the abstract-general pair, slightly similar to a compass, the south being the exact opposite of the north, a necessary polarity from which the whole works. Many managers seeking to progress learn or actualize the abilities inherent to this MO.O.N. with enthusiasm. Performance, pressing on this point, is only the “skillful” and often oblique consequence of a sequential logic, combined and correlated with a functional logic, and in particular, of a functionality that is not technological, but dynamic, tentacular and multiple that never “strays” from the course of things.

Greek notions relating to the metis explaining these “notions” are, for example, gnōmē polúboulos, to deploy an ability-skill with multiple facets changing according to the use and the situation; pantoious dólous, skilled in various tricks, adapts to any situation by finding the most adapted solution; pròs tà sumbainonta acghinoum, adheres to the events with lively skills; pantopóros, elaborates a path of resources in order to operate in flexibility and agility according to the situations, the circumstances (circum-stare) and the weak signals; pantoiē, multiple, the one and the other, this and that, the useful and the necessary; alopex, tricking, just like the fox; epístrophos anthrōpōn, turns an adapted face towards each one and tēchnē pantoiē, a know-how to do everything, a way of operating with diversity.

14.4. Operating in an oblique and economical way

If “morality” prohibits, by instituted rules, the “official” use of this natural mode of operation (the metis), then reality constantly negotiates it. Hence, we “do not openly say”, we “negotiate (as efficiently as possible)”, we “circumnavigate (without wasting time)”, we “say to each other (so that we agree)” and so on. These are social artifices of a moral culture that fundamentally “know” that reality is neither right nor geometric. However, the extra-personal MO.O.N. is not “immoral”, just as the mathematical MO.O.N. is not “stubborn”, or the scientific MO.O.N. is not “in the stars”, and the linguistics MO.O.N. is not “entangled in its speech”. Hence, the ruse is neither deceitful nor fraudulent. Both use and intent are exploiting a natural modus operandi. The mythical Steve Jobs cannot be left out of this subject. He used the resources offered by his extra-personal mode of operation, his metis, in order to manipulate, tilt and achieve his “ends”; his skills were “modeled” by Robert Friedland, his “guru” (Isaacson), and even by Nolan Bushnell:

“It was Robert who taught Steve how to create a distorted field of reality. He was charismatic, cunning, and turned all situations to his advantage. He was sure of himself, tyrannical. Steve admired this and became so when he came into contact with him” [ISA 12, p. 85].

Bushnell says:

“I showed him that we had to behave as if we were going to succeed in what we wanted to do and that it was then done alone. That’s what I say all the time: if you pretend to know what you’re doing, people follow you!” (Ibidem, p. 111).

Jobs used the skills of his extra-personal mode of operation to his advantage, to the detriment of others, showing – in passing – the slightest empathy (see chapter 6), where his “perfect” opposite, Nelson Mandela, mobilized the same tentacular mode of operation in order to drive his political project to the expected result. He embraced the circumvolutions generated by the events between 1993 and 1995, during the Rugby World Cup. Other people, brought up at the beginning of this book, such as Gabrielle Chanel, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Disney or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, combine and correlate their MO.O.N.(s) (in the sense of “er”) with the extra-personal mode of operation. They trick, distort and apprehend potential and trends, scrutinize and follow the course of things, and manage, correlate, imitate and circumvent everything with finesse and subtlety, adapting to any situation. Let us remember Gabrielle Chanel’s credo: “not to resemble anyone, to surprise, to amaze with an elegance whose discretion and effects thwart analysis”⁸. Fashion is in the air, the wind brings it and we sense it, she says. Chanel is awake (ágrupnos), that is, alert and available to the slightest hints that the world offers her: varied situations, behavior, minute details, events and experience.

Among everything they are, they are resourceful, using the slightest movement and incident, that is, what deviates from what is “planned” or what slips into what is “planned”: an unexpected braking, a pétanque ball bouncing sideways by falling on a tiny rock, an object leaping and generating an unexpected effect and so on.

Resourcefulness affects fishing and hunting activities, as well as those from artisans and farmers. The handyman’s movement uses diverted means, but in a skillful and adapted way; the resourceful handyman refers to the operating principles of the metis. They do not lack expedients (polumēchanos), they mobilize a safety glance (eustochia) and their measure, although fugitive, is effective and reliable (oligokairos):

“The handyman is capable of carrying out a large number of diversified tasks; but, unlike the engineer, they do not subordinate each of them to the acquisition of raw materials and tools designed and provided to the measure of his project: their instrumental universe is closed and the rule of the game is always to manage with the ‘on-board means’”⁹.

Let us explore one of the extra-personal MO.O.N.’s abilities with the least rewarding reputation: feigning. Feigning activates an ability to adopt (model) an attitude or to deploy a strategy whose meaning and significance are apart “for some time” from those agreed upon. Thus, the signified visual (what it shows) is perceived as “normal” (given for real), in other words, “as if”, whereas the meaning induces something else in the initiated attitude (another direction, another action, etc.). There is a video on YouTube¹⁰ that makes this ability seem visible. A young American footballer is in his starting position. He stands up calmly and begins to walk between the members of the opposing team. The player pretends to perform an action, such as asking someone for something, or “doing” something. He acts “as if”. Nothing in his gesture fits a classic situation. What he shows, the signified (calm walking), does not correspond to the meaning of the action, in other words, a game backward or to the side (classic attack position), but to a type of situation, such as “wait guys, I have to do or ask for something!”.

The opposing team members stand up, intrigued by the scene. They let him pass without attempting to stop him. Before they understand the reality of the situation, our metis man leaps (skáros), launches his sprint and leaves them dumbfounded in the face of defeat (apátā). The illusion effect is called the feint (apátē). The man has feigned without damage or demonstrating immorality, and he has not mobilized any deceit. He “simply” represented a reality within a reality, and then by circumventing the instituted rule, he scored the touchdown (without effort).

Let us continue with this skill, feigning. It is (almost) systematically associated with immoral and deceitful behavior in people whose “logical-mathematical” operative prevalence was assessed (between 2010 and 2016). The physical reaction observed in this skill is one of disgust, contempt and even rejection. Although they intellectually “understand” that feigning (apátā) can be useful in certain situations, the refusal to train them to make it into an ability and to develop it in a useful way is categorical. But what does feigning mean? Feigning (fingere), in the Late Middle Ages, meant “to shape, to model”, as well as “to give for real”. However, if we go back to antiquity, feigning refers to the ability to simulate an attitude, a situation (illusion, apátē) aimed at deceiving the gaze, not in the “immoral” sense (the concept did not yet exist), but with the intention of coming out of a situation. Odysseus, called outis (anyone), used the resource of this ability to get himself and his companions, who were still alive, out of the Cyclops Cave. Feigning is associated with multiple stratagems (aiólos). However, it is also “true” that he deceived the Trojans after having “softened” them with friendly back and forth and deceived his given word relating to mutual oaths. The Trojan Horse is the offering by which the illusion effect (apátā) takes the Trojans by surprise, and before they understand, the trick is deployed (effect). However, it is not the ruse but its “use” that is reprehensible or can be criticized.

In 2010, the HR Director of an international group asked us to assess a manager whose “behaviors” were considered “unacceptable” in a project conducted using Lean Six Sigma methods. The situation was so critical that dismissal was being considered. However, after the assessment, it turned out that the manager was “out of the ordinary” in terms of an industry standard. His metis (extra-personal MO.O.N.) made him thus unable to “go straight” to respect rules and processes. However, his strategic operating skills led him to produce “better” results than others. What was most incredible was that the feeling of “immorality”, linked to behaviors considered antisocial, took precedence over the efficiency of his results. As soon as his “talents” were explained and named, we learned, after a few weeks of silence, that he was promoted. Naming “forgotten” abilities has legitimized reality, no longer as an asocial behavior, but as an operating mode whose competency generates the creation of values. This paradigm shift changed (everything) in that person’s life. Although it was necessary to “say” it, this example, one of countless, gives visibility to the categorical error made between what is, on the one side, the moral value, the “good” or the “right”, and on the other side, the tentacular and oblique operation. The philosophical heritage (still) marks the mind of what is cited and, in particular, the idea that what is not “right” is immoral.

14.5. Deploying trickery does not imply being deceitful

In the register of sport, whether at a high or amateur level, the metis lands where strength and superiority presides. The example of Eric Alard¹¹, the Olympic coach of the Swiss Bobsleigh team for the Sochi Olympic Games, offers a wide range of abilities (A^s), which are inherent in this natural mode of operation in the success of these games. Eric arrived in 2012, 2 years before the Olympic Games. For “x” reasons, the team neither succeeded nor performed:

“It should be noted that at the sporting and at the Olympic level, we operate on four-year cycles since that is the alternation of the Olympic Games. I came to this period with the Swiss, meaning that there were already two years passed and two years of failure. There are seasonal rhythms in all sports with major competitions: world championships, European championships and every four years, the Olympic Games” [RIC 15].

In 2015, we took the time with him, as part of our work, to reinvestigate the “way” he went about actualizing performances, leading to the Swiss team’s silver medal. We worked with him during that Olympic period. This overall perception facilitated the study.

Our intention was to explain Eric’s operating modes and, in particular, the modus operandi that led his team to the podium. The major contribution of this work was discovering, behind a psychomorphic discourse, that a completely different reality was taking place: an extra-personal natural operating mode. This ability-skill (A^s) deployed in a multitude of stratagems, independently of Eric’s interpersonal skills (see interpersonal MO.O.N.). We extracted a passage from our exchanges, for which we then carried out an in-depth analysis of the operating principles.

“I taught my athletes to show that they are happy on days where conditions are appalling, because many others would tell themselves that they did not like those conditions. They would say ‘Yeah, we’re doing an outdoor sport, bobsleighing is nice, but it’s snowing today... we’ll be cold’. Well, yes... that’s what we came looking for and that’s where we’ll ultimately take the psychological advantage over the others (Alard S6¹²) [...] The athletes look at each other. The athletes observe themselves on the way they warm up and say to themselves. ‘He seems to be going slower today than last week. He looks less fit. He’s breathing more heavily. He’s lowering his head.’ All athletes look somewhere for those little positive signs that can give them the psychological advantage over others” (Alard S8), [RIC 15].

We highly emphasize the semantic indications that implicitly pose the operating modes in the “field”. This is one of the principles of talent assessment; not to “believe” what is “said”, let alone take words that are in evidence for granted, like (a) truth or (a) reality. These are primarily cultural expressions, accumulated and settled by a succession of “popularized” books, “classical” training courses and videos on the Internet. Questioning and observation respect the “strict” principle of coherence and correlation between what is pronounced and observed in the movement of the person, and the observable result in a process to concur or be achieved.

Table 14.2 presents part of the analysis of the two sequences extracted from the 22 commented sequences [RIC 16, pp. 351–355]. The principles refer to Eric’s operating tendency. The abilities explain the operating methods used by the latter. The use formalizes the application. Thus, what then becomes “competencies” from the latter can be explained.

Alard’s first great ability is the situational ability. Not acting recklessly (aphradeos), he is cautious (phronēon). Operating with finesse (polupaipalos), he straightens, adjusts and directs the team (athletes and supervisors) and takes the course of things (ithunein). Taking the expected result as a target (stocházesthai), he encourages (feigns, apátā) a relaxed face, a confident look (and which is not lowered). Thus, it induces (by affixing images) the determination of his athletes in the competitor. Here lies a specificity of the metis, epistrephe poikilon ēthos: showing a different aspect of oneself to the other and which, like drying ink or like a cloud (tholós) deceives the enemy (the competitor) by misleading them in their interpretations. Thus, tiny expressions on the faces of his athletes, and his own, give rise to doubt and the discouragement of the competitor, who, “deceived” by the ruse of appearances, leads themself onto the slope on which their defeat is reinforced.

In the register of graduate studies, the extra-personal MO.O.N. operates with discretion for an optimal result. This is what we make Eymeric, with multiple HRD experience, elucidate a few years after his law studies (DESS). He began the exchange by stating that at the time the situation indicated that the previous promotion “had been decimated” in the written test. Without this, it was impossible to take the oral test. The latter, who would later occupy several positions where metis is useful, comes from political science. Coming from another curriculum, he must “catch up” the last year. He says he is “less well-wired” than most of the students in his class. Hence, this situation attracts the extra-personal operating mode abilities-skills in him. He deploys a strategy to avoid being “decimated”. To do this, he observes how the key teacher in the curriculum, as well as an expert professional, teaches her language habits and her way of organizing her thinking (trending logic). He is interested in her semantics:

“I’m interested in her as a teacher. How she teaches, how demanding she is. We have to make her feel like a super-worker. She told us that the previous batch did not ‘work’. We had to give the feeling that we were hard workers, that we were in it”.

He would also study her works. By studying, one must understand we mean, apprehending the “logic of writing” and the way this teacher “thinks”:

“I became interested in the works of an expert professor on the judgments of the Court of Cassation (which nobody read) very early on, which was very complex and nobody was interested in it. I acquired her seminal works. Before Christmas, I had read what she had written. I look at the introduction, the table of contents, the indexes. I identified the guidelines, a semantic field and a thematic coherence (5 to 10 major themes). I used the themes to investigate her articles. At a given moment, I became aware that between works for the general public, professional works and articles, I located and confirmed the themes. I saw that she had been dealing with about ten themes for ten years”.

With fluorescent markers, he marks the words indicating the trends of articles and books. He gives visibility to what he can then correlate as trending principles. He observes that between books, articles and courses, the expert uses a specific semantics coupled with a way of writing and constructing her own sentences, which is not found, he says, in any teacher. He suggests using this trending logic to the students of his class. Although skeptical, the “wired” students note that the attention of this professor towards Eymeric becomes positive. A mock exam and an excellent mark spur the class into a motivational slope, to follow the strategy of the latter.

“In February, she sends us positive signs, makes asides, gives time and shows herself to be more ‘affective’. That’s where I start thinking about how to manage the exams [...] In testing, I really relied on her concepts and she was really excited, when in fact I was just exploiting her concepts and her thinking. I’m becoming aware of what’s starting to happen. I talk to my colleagues who do not ‘see’ what I am saying. May–June, from reading, I manage to ‘think like her’, I am able to write ‘like her’ and integrate her concepts in terms of ‘logic’”.

Eymeric indicates, to his class, the five to six themes on which he is “sure” (by correlation and appreciation of written and oral trends) they will “fall”:

“That’s what she stands for. It’s her trademark, and she wants us to wear her trademark. The previous year, they did not understand her thinking or concepts. If we manage the four to five themes, we should get through this. I had credit and a head start. I was also well positioned and well-liked by this person. Everyone went on vacation with ‘that’. As for me, I had to go further and put together a plan to manage these 5 themes. I worked on cards with her semantics and concepts to ‘assimilate’ her thought. A conceptual-semantic impregnation, and a flexible plan to deal with the 5 themes. It was a plan, where, each time, I had 2 or 3 possible titles. So, I had about 20 combinations. All I had to do was organize the material with the semantic finesse that goes well”.

When the class came to the exams, the prediction (prometheia) was correct. The anticipation of the trend made “victory” inevitable, what Chinese thought calls zhen (which does not deviate). Eymeric’s probing observation of the coherences of this professor led him to embrace the functional logic of a person who, by inclination, indicated the way forward. Eymeric says:

“When the subject fell, I didn’t have to think. The first combination was the right one. I processed the assignment in 1h45 instead of three hours, for which I graduated top of my class with 16 out of 20 (maximum grade). Everybody passed the writing exam. Then there was a big oral exam. I was less well-wired than some of my colleagues, but I had apprehended and understood the dynamics of thinking. You must have the ability to place the key sequences of your work in the orals. Orally, I got 18. It was a question of waiting for the right moment to bring out the reference that ‘went well’ in the exchange. I conducted the oral so that it was an exchange between ‘experts’ and not between a student and an expert. When you study with someone who is an authority, you have to understand them in their own way. If you don’t, you remain a stranger, if you do, he/she integrates you. It was ‘cunning empathy’. I did not operate empathetically, but I mastered her writing and oratory styles perfectly. Pay attention to the moment when placing references so that they hit the nail on the head (are well placed), rather than placing ideas that miss the mark”.

Let us deduce the abilities relating to the extra-personal MO.O.N. from Eymeric’s remarks (which we have observed operating in this way on numerous occasions over the last 2 years).

It would be wrong to want to “find” equivalents with a “logic” or a traditional analytical capacity in these operating modes. Without going back over the various aspects addressed in the first part, the concept of “classical” intelligence is elaborated by a set of skills of abstraction without any direct link, often with reality in progress. This so-called cognitive skill may be unable to correlate indications without any apparent link between them. Logic is only logical if the objects of thought belong to a category considered to be identical (A = A). This logic is based on ideas (logical schemes) where the functional logic of the extra-personal MO.O.N. embraces the process, what Chinese thought calls the trend-logic (shi li). It is a reasoning in the Chinese sense (li, 理), but which finds its similarity in the metis with the notion of polytropy. This ability to assess by observation, by probing all the indications that the trend makes available, makes the coherence, in which this mode of operation naturally mobilizes, visible. We can then understand why the operation of this MO.O.N. is perceived as “dangerous” for the “norm”. This is because, on the one hand, it is “unmanageable” from the rule and the process (procedure) point of view, and on the other hand, it is supplied by the course of things, this course of moving, unpredictable and tentacular things. It is not the extra-personal MO.O.N. which is immoral, but the intention with which it is used. Even Plato, the Great Geometer, used it, whether he liked it or not, in order to impose his model on a thousand generations of “leaders”: whether it is among the Arabic thinking, where trickery is considered an additional intelligence [KHA 76, p. 44], among the Chinese with Sun Tzu (for the most known) or among the Europeans with Machiavelli, the forms of ability of the extra-personal MO.O.N., whose trickery can be observed, assessed and named. It is, however, only a tip of the iceberg:

“As soon as you have read my letter¹³, you will be like the cheetah that only hunts by using long detours, that only lets its prey slip away through trickery; you will imitate the fox that only wins through artifice. Hide from your enemies, as the raven hides his mating, as the hedgehog hides his head as soon as he is touched by the palm of a hand”.

Our work on the question of actualization has led us to address the nuances between trickery, deceit and fraud, both for educational and functional purposes and in the context of assessments and observations.

14.6. The extra-personal MO.O.N. in animals

“I’d better change my stupid opinion that a unicellular organism is stupid” – Toshiyuki Nakagaki¹⁴.

“It is said that the cunning fox performs a similar¹⁵ manoeuvre. When he sees a large flock of birds, he lies down with his back bent, his legs stretched out, his eyes closed, and his lips close together. He appears to be buried in a deep sleep, or lying on the ground, realistically dead. Thusly, without pushing the slightest breath, he carries out the most skillful and the most varied tricks. The birds, which see him in this state, fly in crowds on him, they scratch and grapple his fur with their feet, insolently insulting his fate; as soon as they are close enough to his teeth, he unveils his tricks; his vast mouth opens greedily on these reckless birds, and seizes, by this sudden eruption, an abundant prey”
– Oppien, The Halieutics, second song.

IMPORTANT.– The extra-personal MO.O.N. is tailored to evolve and adapt to the situations of the living. He complies with them, not by submission (which fear alone would inspire), but by the search for effect, that is, what unfolds beyond the initial “impact”. It is an efficient operating mode with regard to situations (that the trend sets at an angle). It is discreet, indirect, non-acting, invisible, tentacular, multiple and yet its effectiveness is “observable”. The animal world is not left out. The natural extra-personal operating mode can be observed and assessed in many animal species, including some unicellular organisms. Insects and plants also mobilize these “abilities” that must be understood separately from ontology, since it is ontology that initiates the slope of anthropomorphism.

Along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, there are immense swamps where a fertile aquatic diversity is organized. The outgoing tide modifies the configuration and potentiates the muddy banks for the animals whose metis is mobilized efficiently. We will use dolphins as our example. For this, we propose explaining each aspect of this “hunt”, where the trickery and stratagems illustrate this specific mode of operation, particularly the method by which they weave their plan (mētin huphainein). As discussed, the core component of the extra-personal MO.O.N. is tentacular and multiple. It can be organized into six abilities that are in constant interaction and correlation with reality. In our case, let us start with situational abilities. Dolphins, together, use the muddy slope to push fish, by throwing themselves on it [ATK 99]. To do this, they deploy/shape a multifaceted “intelligence” (gnōmē polúboulos), in other words, their operating principle is consistent with the situation (low tide) and configuration (swamp, muddy slope). They accumulate memory of the situations (mnemonic abilities) and use a strategy, thanks to the tricks acquired by experience (kérdē), themselves weighted by the gain of the acquired experience (leptē). Dolphins render a skill to conjecture (tekmairesthai) observable, that is, to use the accumulated experience in order to correlate it with a current situation. Their knowledge of tricks, the weight of the experience and a multifaceted operating mode favor other great abilities gathered in the practical ability. For example, the aiolos, that is, the ability to be fast and mobile while aiming for some kind of effective, but not perfect, measure (stocházesthtai metrou tinos). This is called the fugitive measure (oligokairos). This form of configurational measure is centered on practice, emancipates itself and is indifferent to numbers and figures (inherent in the mathematical MO.O.N.). Here, precision is appreciative and not geometric. Precision is observed by the way movement adapts itself to the movement and inconsistency of the elements: water, mud and slope. Thus, dolphins, like the horses of Antiloque, release their full power (katà kairón) and supported by their speed (kouphos) and safety glance (eustochia¹⁶), circle (enkukleîn) the fish, leaving them with no possibility of escape. Once “without water”, prey cannot escape because of the “wall” of dolphins. This oblique strategy of circling is also used to deter sharks, whose intention is to attack young dolphins, thus referring to the multifaceted dimension of the animal metis. To achieve the result of eating fish on the shore, these mammals operate alone or together. They elaborate a path of resources (pantopóros) by weaving a “plan” (mētin huphainein).

This aspect can be observed in their anchovy fishing, which they collect, if necessary, with a jet of bubbles, illustrating here the inventive abilities that never lack expedients (polumēchanos).

The observation of their joint movement, when they act as a team, shows oblique movement towards the bank: one from the front, one from an angle on the right side and the other from an angle on the left side. The strong acceleration towards the muddy bank generates a wave which propels the fish towards it. The observable principle is similar to that of a tsunami. The wave starts from the sea with the dolphins pushing, and then with the muddy slope, the water spreads in quantity and projects the fish onto the bank. The dolphins from the right side, if there are many, generate a cone from which it is impossible for the fish to escape. Here is a technê produced by the metis, a clever way of operating.

Birds, such as petrels, are not left out, because they benefit from a few “forgotten” fish. For them, dolphins are the potential and the tide is the situation potential (che). Their metis is observed and assessed in at least three aspects:

• – oxús: designates “the opportunity of punctual intervention”, the low tide from which it is necessary to take advantage thanks to the dolphins;
• – kairos: “discerning the right moment”, in other words, the time between the next step and the step taken, where, on the one hand, the dolphins have eaten the biggest fish, and on the other hand, where the other feathered competitors try to seize the smallest;
• – leptē: “the trick weighted with experience”, in other words, the moment and position that should be occupied, weighted with experience in order to ensure the greatest gain with minimal effort: “They invent a fishing technique adapted to these places”, says the commentator¹⁷.

However, the word invent (excessively) implies the idea of a scientific type of operating mode, whereas if we say they recognize a reference point (muddy banks at low tide) and assess (by gap with high tide) the “plan” (tékmōr, way of operating) and they identify the points of reference and the routes (peîrar), in addition to not lacking expedients (polumēchanos), then we are describing a process that is possible to observe. In other words, they are as skillful as they are resourceful.

Resourcefulness comes directly from handiwork, which originally evokes an incidental movement, that is, what deviates from what is “planned”: an unexpected braking or a pétanque ball bouncing sideways by falling on a tiny stone. As stated in section 14.4, resourcefulness affects not only fishing and hunting activities, but also the artisan and the farmer. The handyman’s movement uses diverted means, but in a skillful and adapted way; the resourceful handyman refers to operating principles of the metis, they do not lack expedients (polumēchanos), they mobilize a safety glance (eustochia) and their measure, although fugitive, is effective and reliable (oligokairos).

Another example illustrates the feint through a situation that the primatologist Dian Fossey reports. She describes how S, a female gorilla, spots a bush in the trees that gorillas particularly appreciate. S is the only one who notices it. She sits down and delouses herself meticulously, while the group continues on its way until it disappears. Once she is sure she is alone, she quickly climbs the tree, grabs the bush and eats it just as quickly before joining the group with a “meaningless expression”. Thus, 1) S recognizes a sign in space (tekmor): a tasty bush; 2) she leaves nothing to chance and is careful not to act thoughtlessly (aphradios): shows no sign to other members indicating the bush; 3) she meditates her plan and does not lack expedients (poulumēchanos): she lets them pass and remains alone; 4) S produces an illusion effect (apátē): she simulates delousing, a natural activity that does not attract attention; 5) she acts quickly (koûphos): grabs the bush, eats it and joins the group.

This method of operation is found in the bumblebee, who, in order to have access to the nectar of the comfrey flower, pierces the corolla tube at its base. This prevents it from taking the pollen protecting it.

Researcher Toshiyuki Nakagaki observed and studied Myxomycetes¹⁸ (non-segmented cells). He showed that the latter were able to develop a network of tubes in a labyrinth in order to absorb oat flakes deposited at random. However, it was not this skill that intrigued the mathematician, but their ability to connect so that they could quickly absorb as much food as possible. He says, “Amoeboid organisms may be smarter than we thought¹⁹ [...] In this organism, there is no nervous system, no brain, yet it has the ability to solve difficult mathematical problems. But the computational mode of this organism is still unknown”. The Myxomycete illustrates the core component of the extra-personal MO.O.N., tentacular-multiple (obliqueeconomical).

Whether in the world of commerce, strategy, espionage, negotiation, sport, forecasting and anticipation, crafts, agriculture, scientific research, the education industry, marketing, mass communication, politics, culture and so on, this MO.O.N. is deployed. Although it is a “discreet” MO.O.N., it does not remain the most coherent with, what Darwin calls, natural selection. The assessment of this operating mode forces the creation of nonlinear situations; however, the best way to observe it is to force it to follow an imposed rule and to observe it as it circumvents it.