STRATEGY OF THE DOLPHIN Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World<i> by Dudley Lynch & Paul L. Kordis(Fawcett Columbine: $9.95, illustrated) </i>

The latest in a long line of simple-minded advice books, “Strategy of the Dolphin” is an eclectic mishmash that borrows from a wide range of sources, including “The Book of Five Rings” and “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Plumbing the depths of their aquatic metaphor, Dudley Lynch and Paul Kordis divide humans into three categories: weak, passive “Carp”; nasty, aggressive “Sharks,” and flexible, free-thinking, New Age “Dolphins.”

Beneath a veritable Sargasso Sea of quotes, analogies, diagrams and psychobabble is a book designed to help people in the business world get what they want without feeling like greedy, manipulative sleazeballs. (“Ever tried to go a week without a rationalization?” asked Michael in “The Big Chill.”) Damon Runyon’s vastly more entertaining characters would undoubtedly describe “Strategy” as “strictly from herring.”