Positive Sum

CHAPTER ONELEWIS POWELL'S DANGEROUS BRILLIANCE: HOW ONE MAN BUILT ZERO‐SUM THINKING INTO US SOCIETY

Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?

—W.E.B. Du Bois¹

As a seasoned professional with decades of experience in finance, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about American politics and economics. Not that this was anything new to me or those who know me. Back at Princeton in the mid‐1980s, during late‐night college dorm room debates over cold pizza and warm beer, I'd often get into friendly arguments over mundane historical or philosophical topics— exactly what you'd expect of college nerds.

I had a particular knack for offering trivial information that highlighted my vast and obscure compendium of Facts Known to Roy, and sometimes it got me in trouble. One evening one of my roommates said, half mockingly, “Gosh, Roy, it seems like you know everything,” to the laughter of our friends. I looked up from my pizza, locked eyes with said roommate, and with a dramatic calm, responded: “Doug, I don't know everything. But I know damn near everything.”

Of course, that line became an instant classic. Over forty years later, my college pals still don't let me live it down, in part because it feels so out of character.

They were shocked to hear me utter such pompous words, ...