As furniture.

As background.

And that reading is a mistake, but it is a mistake the powerful make so reliably that you can build a strategy on it.

Because a person who has decided you do not matter stops watching you.

They speak freely in front of you, the way they would in front of a lamp.

They leave things unguarded that they would lock away from anyone they considered a threat.

They hand you access, and time, and information, never imagining you might do anything with it, because in their minds you are not the sort of person who does things.