The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a book about pragmatism. Greene doesn’t attempt to indoctrinate his readers into believing a fixed philosophy, in fact, he does the opposite. At the end of each chapter, he includes a “reversal” section where he attempts to criticize the validity of his laws. Sometimes, there are … Read more
Summary The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche is a collection of masterfully written musings about art, religion, God, literature, human psychology, the difference between the sexes, thinking, the illusion of the contemplative minds, free will, actors, and morality. Nietzsche despises systematic thinking, he rejects the British philosophical tradition and the German tradition. The urge to … Read more
Influence by Robert Cialdini teaches us about the science of persuasion. The author himself spent his life studying the most common techniques that were used by salesmen and persuaders, and the six most pervasive strategies were presented in this book. The Six Laws of Persuasion Reciprocation People feel obliged to give back. When you offer … Read more
Law 15: Crush Your Enemies Totally Wu Chao was born in A.D 625. She was a beautiful young woman, and daughter of the duke. But she was competing with the harem of Emperor T’ai Tsung, who were all competing to be the emperor’s favorite. This made the palace of the emperor a dangerous place. But … Read more
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is about how ideas really spread. The argument is that it’s not the size of the advertising budget that determines how quickly ideas catch fire, rather it is the dynamic interplay of hidden factors at just the right time. The Law of the Few is an example of this. … Read more
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is about our perceptions of success and genius. Gladwell’s take on the classic nature vs nurture argument, is that nurture wins. We have a way of looking at success stories and marvel at how some exceptional people were able to accomplish what they did, but really, they were merely products of … Read more
Blue Ocean Strategy is a book that argues for a better strategy in business, finding uncontested space rather than join the fierce competition that already exists. When a market is crowded, products become like commodities – they lose value and it becomes difficult to stand out. If you want to join the competition, you will be … Read more
Honesty can be used as a weapon in the realm of deception. This will especially work against the most suspicious people, for they will never see honesty coming. In 1926, Count Victor Lustig paid a visit to the most feared gangster of his time, Al Capone. Lustig tells Capone that he can double his money, … Read more
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” Animal farm by George Orwell is a story about communism. The animals represented the workers who toiled all day, with the humans their capitalistic overlords, living from the fruits of the animals’ labor without giving them fair compensation. To make things worse, Mr. Jones was … Read more
Jung departed from Freud’s theories about the unconscious because he believed that the unconscious contents of the psyche consisted of inherited knowledge of archetypes, in addition to contents that were derived from the individual’s conscious life. In Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Jung explains the reasons for his departure, and gives us a detailed discussion … Read more