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The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

powerseductionandwar.com

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Re: The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

#3
Really enjoyed the article. I've skimmed Greene's book and thought it was just a modernisation of Machiavelli's "The Prince". This article really shows how passionate he is about understanding and accepting human nature. Because Greene's book is prescriptive in that it lists 48 laws, I had thought there wasn't that much depth to it. I'm pleasantly surprised by Greene's insight.

Re: The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

#7
"The other thing that primates have that is so bizarre and interesting is that they are the only animal we know that practice deception and games of manipulation among each other. There is no other animal on the planet that we can say that about."

Some male cuttlefish will pretend to be female in order to sneak past the alpha male and mate with the female he is guarding. I am sure there are many, many other examples of non-primates using deception/manipulation.

Re: The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

#8
post #4
post #2

Robert's profiling Paul Graham (along with a dozen or so other people) in his next book.

Any hint on the topic?

He briefly mentions the next book in the speech (quoted below) and I'm sure more will come, but the concept of mastery which is a theme in all Robert's books is the common thread between the people he interviewed

In the book that I'm writing now, I can talk about it later, if you'd like, I'm interviewing eight of the most eminent people in the world today in different fields -- In neuroscience, in architecture, in music. All of them are inherently non-conformists. All of them are inherently bucking the trend and taking their field in a completely novel direction by bringing out more of that uniqueness that I was talking about."

Re: The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

#9
post #7

"The other thing that primates have that is so bizarre and interesting is that they are the only animal we know that practice deception and games of manipulation among each other. There is no other animal on the planet that we can say that about." Some male cuttlefish will pretend to be female in order to sneak past the alpha male and mate with the female he is guarding. I am sure there are many, many other examples…

There are plenty of deceptive bugs and other critters. Like stick insects, frog fish, chameleons, etc.

Re: The "Machiavellian Reality" -- speech by Robert Greene

#10
post #4
post #2

Robert's profiling Paul Graham (along with a dozen or so other people) in his next book.

Any hint on the topic?

Having first read jdp's comment, then the linked doc, this seemed pertinent -

"In the book that I'm writing now, I can talk about it later, if you'd like, I'm interviewing eight of the most eminent people in the world today in different fields -- In neuroscience, in architecture, in music. All of them are inherently non-conformists. All of them are inherently bucking the trend and taking their field in a completely novel direction by bringing out more of that uniqueness that I was talking about."

i.e. Innovation in funding and development of startups. (I would guess)

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