Ted Audio Collective. better human. A podcast from Ted. I'm a comedian and each week on how to be a

better human. I sit down to have an honest and hopefully funny and revealing

conversation with an expert who can help us to see the world in a new way.

This season, we're diving into everything

from how you can love better, to how to create habits that stick,

to how to have hope in a world and at a time

where that feels really challenging. You can find all those

topics and so many more on episodes of how to be a better human, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey everyone, it's Adam Graham. Welcome back to Rethinking, my

podcast on the science of what makes us tick with the TED Audio Collective.

I'm an organizational psychologist and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people

to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.

My guest today is Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist at Stanford and one of the

world's most creative and most influential management thinkers. Bob is an award-winning

scholar and teacher and a best-selling author. He's sometimes known as the

asshole guy because two of his books are the no-asshole rule and the asshole survival

guide. Bob has a new book out, The Friction Project with Huggy Rao.

It's the ultimate guide to diagnosing and fixing the problems in your workplace.

Talking with Bob always leaves me intellectually stimulated and emotionally energized,

and this conversation was no exception. We discussed when it might make sense to be boring.

Why indifference is as important as passion, what it looks like to actually listen to your team,

and how to tell if you're an asshole. Let me start by asking you Bob Sutton, one of my heroes of

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