Playing Nice

Your company loves it when you learn a new skill, and will give you a badge to prove it.

A badge used to be a simple thing—an outward sign that the badge wearer, a Girl Scout, for example, had mastered a specific skill such as building a fire. It was proof, backed up by the badge grantor, that the Scout could perform the skill. Those simple cloth merit badges motivated Scouts to learn new skills and allowed them to communicate their expertise without being obnoxious braggarts.

Now that ba