In the context of my previous entry, this news story was hilarious

[asakiyume]

Or, octopuses can be assholes, too. (And you thought only human bosses were jerks)

"Octopuses and fish share leadership--and enforcement--in group hunting."

The octopuses punch the low-performing or freeloading fish. They punch them!

Comments

[sovay]

The octopuses punch the low-performing or freeloading fish. They punch them!

My father just read this to me!

"And then this creates more movement in the group, and then the octopus stops punching."

[asakiyume]

This video is hilarious. Little asshole!

[osprey_archer]

AS THE FREELOADING FISH DESERVE, BY GOD. Now if only we could do that to Alex over in accounting...

(As far as I know there is no Alex in accounting and if there is I am sure they do their fair share of the work. No Alexes were hurt in the making of this comment!)

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, I giggled at the disclaimer. Alexes everywhere breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, project managers everywhere are preparing presentations that say "Punching: Not Such A Bad Method After All?"

[lilysea]

Oh god:

someone I used to work with told a story about a Very, VERY Senior Executive who had viciously elbowed them in the sides all through a meeting

because the executive didn't think that they were typing up the notes fast enough :(

(both the person elbowing and the person being elbowed were women)

[asakiyume]

OMG how awful.

I hope people will agree that in the human world, PUNCHING (or elbowing) WORKERS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE

[osprey_archer]

With a four-quadrant graph, showing the axes "No Punching to Punching" and "Low Productivity to High Productivity."

[asakiyume]

Never mind presentation, make it an article for Harvard Business Review or Fast Company!

[rachelmanija]

Oh my god, I love this.

[asakiyume]

Everyone's favorite li'l asshole!

[sartorias]

I'm totally not surprised that octopuses have personalities!

[asakiyume]

Indeed! I want to see the octopus union organizers ;-)

[sartorias]

And the poets! And the society snobs! And the dancers. Especially the dancers!

[asakiyume]

Absolutely!

[zdenka]

That cracked me up!

[asakiyume]

Me too!

[minoanmiss]

That struck me when I researched octopodes -- they are gloriously assholic and full of personality.

[heleninwales]

It's probably as well that they have very short lives. If they lived longer and had more time to think up clever plots, I suspect we would be welcoming our new octopus overlords.

[asakiyume]

One thing the book I was posting about in the previous entry posited was that indeed, they developed longer lives.

[minoanmiss]

Absolutely.

[asakiyume]

They are delightfully indomitable!

[dark_phoenix54]

A few months ago there was a short film clip of an octopus sucker punching a fish. I guess the fish got too close to the octopus!

[asakiyume]

"Just enforcing my personal space, ma'am!"