^Some might be sadists, but I believe their goal in general is simply to get what they want. This might be a partner who's already married, a job that requires backstabbing, a house that's already lived in, etc. The point of a psychopath is that they don't care what they have to do on their way to their goal - it doesn't affect them except to further pad their (already large) ego. They're not emotionless; they *do* experience happiness, drive, anger etc - but only in relation to themselves (or, occasionally, things they have decided come under the umbrella of their ego, like family).
So while some might experience pleasure directly related to observing other's pain, for psychopaths in general (in absence of other disorders) the pain is simply incidental; collateral on the way to getting what they want. Because they're so absolutely ruthless, having no empathy or conscience beyond the knowledge of norms that helps them not get caught out, there's a whole log of damage, so it might look as if they're out to hurt. But that isn't their goal. Although they *do* like reviewing the effects of their actions and, by surveying the extent of the destruction after they're done, get a sense of their power.
IIRC a lot of the time they're not particularly cunning, in that they don't have a plan mapped out from A to Z. They simply do whatever they want at each point. They spin and spin stories around each person to cover any slip-ups. I read that if you pay attention you can catch some of them in the act - although it's more difficult than the average person because they have no 'tells' (since they don't experience any discomfort with deception) - because the clumsy ones will tack on socially correct phrases and expressions of emotions onto incongruous sentences (describing their ego, or perhaps just after they've expressed happiness), plus their words will often not match their facial expressions or perhaps what their hands are gesturing. The 'normal' things they say don't quite fit because they're not actually natural to them.
I'm not sure if this applies to all or simply the clumsy ones, though I do remember they read Ted Bundy like this.
