Archetype Hero ·
Homo Sapiens Engineer Cassandricus
Predicts the failure. Documents the failure. Gets assigned the failure.
Corp Role profile
SCHTICK Score™
Seven traits, rated from 1 (low) to 10 (high). These describe a fictional archetype; a higher score is not always better.
How the SCHTICK Score™ works ↗
- Sycophancy
- UnratedHigh: Tells power exactly what it wants to hear.Low: Rarely flatters or agrees merely to please people in power.
- Confidence
- UnratedHigh: Projects certainty, regardless of evidence.Low: Shows little certainty and hesitates to assert a position, even when well informed.
- Honesty
- UnratedHigh: Tells the truth, even when inconvenient.Low: Withholds, distorts or avoids the truth when it is inconvenient.
- Tenacity
- UnratedHigh: Persists through resistance and setbacks.Low: Gives up or changes direction quickly when resistance or setbacks appear.
- Influence
- UnratedHigh: Uses charisma and persuasion to win people over and shape decisions, priorities and actions.Low: Has little sway over decisions or other people’s actions; struggles to win support.
- Capability
- UnratedHigh: Has the skills and judgement to deliver results.Low: Lacks the skills or judgement to deliver reliably and needs substantial help.
- Killer Instinct
- UnratedHigh: Seizes opportunities and outmanoeuvres rivals.Low: Rarely presses an advantage or pursues opportunities at a rival’s expense.
Why this one bites
Cassandricus can see the machinery beneath the “small change.” Once believed that explaining a problem clearly would cause somebody to reconsider it. Now keeps dated copies and an emergency repair script.
Usually the person keeping the lights on. Occasionally the person who discovers that making a report incomprehensible is faster than explaining why it cannot mean anything. This fictional Archetype Hero draws on Moonbraker, Cross-Team Alignment and The Designated Technical Cassandra.
Famous for:
- Asking which top priority should become less top.
- Translating “quick win” into dependencies, missing requirements and three weekends.
- Being described as negative before an incident and indispensable during it.
- Developing enough corporate fluency to conceal a technical objection inside an approved phrase.
Favourite quotes:
- Do you want an estimate, or confirmation of the date you already announced?
- I can build either interpretation. You’ve budgeted for half of one.
- That isn’t an edge case. That’s Tuesday.
- Yes, I raised it. The document is attached to the meeting where we agreed not to discuss it.
Memorable moments:
- Asked how an understaffed software team would build a spaceship. Received ownership of the space programme.
- Explained that the design would lose customer data. Was asked to be more constructive.
- Built the racecar-bulldozer because two separate products were considered excessive scope.
- Made a meaningless metric sufficiently complicated to obtain immediate approval.
Reality Byte:
- Being right is the first step towards being assigned the cleanup.
Accessible summary
- A weary engineer with sparse upright hair and square black glasses wears a white shirt with rolled sleeves, a green tie and dark trousers.
- He holds a large red lipstick in a black tube with a gold collar in one hand and carries a battered laptop and papers under the other arm.