LAW 24: Play the perfect courtier.

Social dexterity is essential power where so much depends on other people and how they perceive you.

The timeless principles of courtiership aren't about snobbery, but a deep understanding of personality and social dynamics. 1. Manners maketh man – and woman.

LAW 23: Concentrate your forces.

You make the most of your vital energies by concentrating them in your strongest point.

Rigid application of this law can lead to ruin, neglecting it can lead to defeat and mediocrity. 1. Understand this, and understand it well.

You concentrate on your mission and don’t compromise your principles, but they can evolve with experience.

How do you know you’re compromising? Your gut will tell you loud and clear.

TRUST Thread

When you don’t know how to Trust, your relationships will be shallow and conflicted – with yourself more than anyone.

No-one is exempt from the inner work. 1. When you trust someone, make that a conscious decision, not trust by implication. Know what value that person brings to your life.

Take responsibility for your cognitive investment. Is it worth it?

LAW 22: Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power.

To win, you must live to fight another day.

The law reveals the tremendous power of the dialectic – to get what you want, you often need to go in the opposite direction. 1. To defeat aggressive people who live to put others down, deny them the satisfaction of open combat.

Drain their will to fight through indirection, confusion and distraction – they easily fall for such tactics.

LAW 21: Play a sucker to catch a sucker – seem dumber than your mark.

@RobertGreene warns that no-one likes to feel stupider than someone else, so you must be careful with your displays of intellect.

But the flaws and insecurities it reveals can also be found in the mirror. 1. When you appear better than others, you stir their impulse to bring you down a notch so they look better.

LAW 20: Do not commit to anyone.

Only fools need to take sides; the wise commit to leading themselves regardless of conditions.

The law arises from fundamental principles of Mind that manifest in how people relate to the world and one another. 1. Ego-attachment is a prison chain for the mind.

The authentic Mind is fluid.

When you identify, you surrender to semantics.

LAW 19: Know who you’re dealing with – do not offend the wrong person.

@RobertGreene warns that if you cross the wrong people, they may spend the rest of their lives seeking to ruin yours.

If you don’t learn people, psychology and Mind, you condemn yourself to a life of misery. 1. With the right person, even the best of intentions can lead to the worst offense.

If you don’t pay attention and you’re ignorant of people.

LAW 18: Do not build fortresses to protect yourself – isolation is dangerous.

@RobertGreene warns that isolation is self-defeating because it cuts you off and makes you a target.

Inner defensiveness is even more harmful because it goes against the antifragility of Mind. 1. Defensiveness is self-defeating in social situations. You single yourself out as a victim or weakling, but you can overcome with a change in attitude.

Defensiveness turned inward is a form of self-sabotage. Self-inflicted mental trauma can haunt you for a lifetime.

LAW 17: Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability.

You can unsettle people who attempt to control you by being deliberately unpredictable and seemingly inconsistent.

Inertia and laziness are common diseases of Mind, so it's easy to fall their prey. 1. The only way to deal with uncertainty is to learn to lead yourself. Every other option condemns you to a life of suspended terror.

LAW 16: Use absence to increase honor and respect.

Gracian: “If presence diminishes fame, absence augments it.”

The law stands on timeless dynamics of society and Mind. 1. Neediness is the ultimate social sin: it contains boredom, but also weakness.

LAW 15: Crush your enemy totally.

Machiavelli: Men "can avenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance."

This principle of intolerance begins with oneself first. 1. Tolerance will poison your life and your very Being.

Grow a spine and make your own world.

15 Easy Ways Focus Is Very Probably Terribly Bad for You

Sticker shock: focus comes at a dear price.

It’s like comfort food for the mind. Inexperienced gooroos will screech at you:

– about having specialized skills, so you stand out with your excellence,
– about being focused on your step-by-step plan for world domination,
– about trimming your desires to what’s “reasonable” or “realistic”.

LAW 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy.

@RobertGreene advises to avoid open confrontation with people, and seek to uncover their hidden plans and desires instead, wielding polite banter as a weapon.

To amplify your Power of Mind, point the spyglass to yourself first. 1. Take a third-person point of view to your actions and sensations. Study yourself and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Be merciless.

LAW 13: When asking for help, appeal to people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude.

To get people on side, seek out their selfishness, which can be about being a do-gooder.

The law stands on the nature of virtu and gratitude: they are individual, not collective. 1. Gratitude goes one way – out of yourself. It’s not a transaction, and warrants no expectations.

LAW 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim.

People are afraid of the labor of thinking, so they are easily deceived by a magnanimous gestures.

If you are easily distracted by what others do or say, you’ll never own yourself or build anything of value. 1. Develop a maniacal fixation on your authentic mission.

Understand that when you know what you want, the way is to go after it regardless.

LAW 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you.

Value is power. If you don’t bring essential value to people’s lives, you’re powerless amongst them.

You must learn to take care of yourself and take responsibility for your life. This is called maturity. 1. Dependency between people is always mutual. There are no exceptions to this rule.

LAW 10: Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky.

People's emotions and energy rub off on everything they touch. Be vigilant and keep away from damaged people lest you be damaged as well.

The solutions to problems others create you can find with yourself. 1. Who you surround yourself with you become.

Let's face it – mindfulness is another virtue-signalling fad.

– Most meditation gooroos have no clue what it's all about.
– Mindfulness signallers don't even know the fundamentals.

You might as well waste your time with celebrity gossip. If you don't know instinct, you won't know Mind and what to do with it.

Instinct is essential because it keeps you alive.

All else of Mind depends on it.

LAW 9: Win through your actions, never through argument.

Even when they agree with you, people will often go on to do the exact opposite – and hold a grudge for your having argued with them.

Human cognition is flawed, but few recognize this on a deep level. Understand that the vast majority of people assume that words, logic and other semantics are about truth.

They are afraid of appearing stupid for being proven wrong, or honestly see themselves as the smartest person in the room.

https://twitter.com/startupdaemon/status/960498331221970945

LAW 8: Make other people come to you – use bait if necessary.

If you force the hand of the opponent, you can win the war before it's even started. To react = to act from weakness.

But the psychological roots of the law go beyond what Sun Zi would tell you. 1. When you approach, you tend to do so with attachment to the outcome.

You make assumptions about how the other person should be and form expectations about what ought to happen next.

This makes you rigid, needy and reactive. Which is weak and appeals to no-one.

PAIN and SUFFERING Awareness Thread

Pain is your friend, suffering is not.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
Pain pairs with growth, suffering – with stagnation.

Pain can be heroic, suffering – pathetic. What's pain?
– Pain is the experience of physical harm to your mind-body. Pain is a friend which keeps you alive.

What's suffering?
– Suffering is the difference between imaginary outcomes you attach to and perceived reality. Suffering is an enemy, like all delusion.