robertgreene

I'm going to be taking chapter 4 in Mastery, the chapter on Social Intelligence and fleshing it out into an entire book. Basically I am going to be identifying the essential elements of human nature so that you will be better armed with knowledge in figuring out the moves and motivations of the people around you.

Thanks everyone for participating in this. To answer the first question here. #1. In your first years at any place, you want to slowly build a rep for someone who gets results, who quietly goes his or her way and does the job efficiently, while observing the power dynamic and the rules of the game. That will secure your position and make you indispensable. Attaching yourself to the right person and making yourself indispensable to him or her is also a good idea. Stop worrying about the immediate political battles, and getting all enmeshed in them. Read chapter two in Mastery about the apprenticeship phase and how to really protect yourself.

The happy successful end? Why does there have to be a happy successful end? I could say it is marriage, but marriages do not always have happy endings. Life is endless struggle and the best way to approach it is to love the struggle and conflict, the game itself and not get caught up in dreams or illusions of some endless happiness. As I write in the Preface, it all depends on your spirit and attitude. If you take it lightly and not personally, you will find a higher level of fulfillment. If a seduction goes awry or someone manipulates you, as best as possible, a few weeks later you find a way to smile about it and realize you learned a good lesson.

Hello Ryan. I used to scour UCLA. You're right. A great library. Now, in the era of Amazon, I can find those obscure books by using the UCLA library databank, online, and then ordering them from Amazon. It costs more, but it is a tax write off and I can accumulate an amazing library in my house. (I'm running out of bookshelves.) I am a big believer in cross referencing. In other words, I will come across the name of an historical figure or an idea that is intriguing, somewhat mysterious and obscure, and then using the footnotes or the Internet, I hunt down more information. In Mastery, for instance, I would read a book about the 10,000 hour study, and the book would reference another study that inspired it in the 60s. I would find the obscure book on that previous study, which would include a reference to some really intriguing book written in the 1950s on how the brain functions. That's my method in a nutshell.

Approach it first as a problem to solve. People are like riddles. You need to solve these riddles. So your task is to expose yourself to as many people as possible and try to answer the question, what are they thinking? Be very sensitive to whatever you do that might offend or potentially charm them. Sometimes your awkwardness can work to your advantage if it is natural. The main thing is to go out in the world as much as possible and observe people and your effect on them.