The Concise Laws of Human Nature

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Examples: Pericles, Athens, the Inner Athena, and the Peloponnesian War. Greene begins this chapter with the story of how Sparta defeated Athens despite the latter’s wealth and naval power.\ examples of rational people who have existed throughout history Pericles the ruler of Aśoka of ancient India, Marcus Relius Marguerite de Valois in medieval France, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Anton Chekov, Margaret Mead, Warren Buffett. too much history. Most of "examples" were just so utterly boring, and combining that with the manner of actual characters having fictional thoughts it was just too much. One of the key strengths of the book is the way it draws on a wide range of disciplines to provide a holistic understanding of human behavior. Greene synthesizes insights from psychology, biology, philosophy, and even neuroscience to offer a rich and nuanced view of what makes us human.

The Concise Laws of Human Nature - Profile Books The Concise Laws of Human Nature - Profile Books

Most of us have depressive tendencies and moments. The best way to handle them is to be aware of their necessity—they are our body’s and mind’s way of compelling us to slow down, to lower our energies and withdraw."Pros: a great primer on the psychological tendencies that pull us all in certain directions, mostly to the detriment of our rational goals. Robert Greene identifies 18 such “laws,” providing historical and biographical sketches that demonstrate each law in practice. He then provides strategies for turning each law—with its inherent self-destructive tendencies—into an advantage. The author draws on a vast storehouse of examples, and his emphasis on rationality and examples from ancient Greece are well received. Be aware of demagogues who exploit the group effect and stimulate outbreaks of irrationality. They inevitably resort to certain devices. In a group setting, they begin by warming up the crowd, talking about ideas and values that everyone shares, creating a pleasant feeling of agreement. They rely on vague but loaded words full of emotive quality such as justice or truth or patriotism. They talk of abstract, noble goals rather than the solving of specific problems with concrete action. Demagogues in politics or the media try to stir a continual sense of panic, urgency, and outrage. They must keep the emotional levels high."

Concise Laws Of Human Nature by Robert Greene | Goodreads

Let us rid death of its strangeness, come to know it. Let us have nothing on our minds as often as death. At every moment let us picture it in our imagination in all its aspects ... It is uncertain where death awaits us; let us await it everywhere. Premeditation of death is premeditation of freedom ... He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. Knowing how to die frees us from all subjection and constraint." — Michel de MontaigneLooking at this from the other side, as a character in Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot advised, “When you are lying, if you skillfully put in something not quite ordinary, something eccentric, something, you know, that never has happened, or very rarely, it makes the lie sound much more probable.”" Personally I do not take the recollections of other people too seriously, because I feel most people (myself included) tend to exaggerate often, but Greene’s explanations for human nature really hit home for me. I look at the people I work with or see in the media and I can’t help but nod my head at how accurate the analysis seems to be. Whether the advice is useful or not is really a matter of trial and error. The Law of Aggression. This chapter is essentially about productively channelling the aggression that we all possess. He talks about how our tendency to look down on aggression and strong desires for power can have a detrimental effect on the way we channel our own aggression energy.

Concise Laws Of Human Nature by Robert Greene | Goodreads Concise Laws Of Human Nature by Robert Greene | Goodreads

Under stress, the cool mask of self-control comes off. We lash out in anger, reveal a paranoid streak, and become hypersensitive and often petty. Stress overwhelms our reasoning powers. Stress reveals flaws in people that they have carefully concealed from view. Observe people in such moments as a way to judge their true character. Never imagine that you are someone who can withstand rising stress without emotional leakage. It is not possible. He might have done the same in his other books as well. But for some reason these anecdotes don't work here. After a couple of chapters, I found myself skipping the anecdotes directly to the part where he explained a particular law.The Law of Generational Myopia. This chapter talks about generations and how the relationships among all the generations alive at a particular moment in history create the zeitgeist. One of the most insightful things I found in this entire book was how Robert's interpretation of Ibn Khaldun's social cycle theory. Welcome to the Dark Side. This book is written by a man who lives in a hostile world where every day is a power struggle with other divisive beings like yourself. If you think manipulating with others to get what you want is morally wrong, you are detached from reality… and lazy (yep, the author actually says this outright).