Swimming With Narcissists: What Power Looks Like Up Close

Available now on my Substack!

Across the month of February 2026, I will be publishing a series on Power. It has grown out of conversations I’ve had repeatedly with people who are frustrated or perplexed about the growing gap between what power says and what it does.

Public language is often careful, values-laden, and reassuring. Outcomes are not always. The performance of concern, consultation, or resolve can sit uncomfortably alongside decisions that preserve advantage, defer accountability, or quietly maintain the status quo. Many people sense this dissonance, even if they struggle to name it.

The pieces I have written draw on lived experience close to power - not to settle scores or to demystify individuals, but to describe patterns: how influence actually moves; how silence, signal, alliance and ambition shape outcomes; and how ethical action can still produce change when formal power resists it.

These essays are not a guide to winning at politics. They are an attempt to build literacy - for those who engage from within the system, those who challenge it from outside, and those who want to understand why change so often feels harder than it should be - and who remain determined to seek better.

Welcome to the first part in the series: “Swimming with Narcissists: What Power Looks Like Up Close.”