Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power”: 48 Laws of Manipulation
[Robert Greene’s‘The 48 Laws of Power’ identifies a darker path to fulfil our deep seeded desire to be powerful. The philosophies and actions advocated in this book are callous, unprincipled, devious, scheming, manipulative—a good dose of pure utilitarian nonsense for the foolish, insensitive, and greedy personality. Manipulation is a term much more appropriate for the suggestions in this book. Manipulation by means of deceit and maintaining the illusion of power is what you are going to learn from this book, not how to be ethical and influential!
Find out everyone’s button, save this information, and push it accordingly.
Act like a member of royalty.
Master timing.
Show contempt for things (and people) you cannot have. By showing you are upset, you are admitting “weakness”.
Create a lot of spectacles.
Behave like other people as a mask.
Use other people’s emotions; play with them.
Free things are dangerous. Instead, pay for everything yourself and make sure people see it.
Don’t follow in anyone’s footsteps.
Attack someone that bothers you. Don’t bother negotiating or understanding them. Just attack them so they shut up and your reputation remains intact.
Seduce people by playing with their emotions.
Mirror people so they get annoyed and humiliated.
Preach “change” and other vague promises, but never act too much on them.
Pretend to mess up once in a while. People will see that you’re not a sociopath after all.
Achieve in moderation.
Be formless. Form, order, routine equals predictability. And those watchful guys following you over your shoulder all this time will spot that and destroy you.