The 48 Laws of Power: My 10 Most Insightful Lessons (Part 2)
Five more reflections on the most eye-opening quotes from Robert Greene's infamous bestseller
This is part two of my article on The 10 Most Insightful Quotes From The 48 Laws of Power.
We cannot opt out of the game of power, Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power insists. Whether it’s a king at an ancient court or a bunch of people getting together in a modern office. Someone will assert himself or herself as the boss and the others will position themselves around the wannabe leader. The inevitable game for attention and power begins — however indirectly.
The dynamics that guide human behaviour have not changed with society becoming more civilised. The only thing that may be different is that we think we’re above it all. But everyday power games rarely revolve around coercion and open intimidation. Rather, Greene frames them as the art of deception, patience and most of all indirection. His book distils the rules of the game down to 48 laws.
5 More Lessons from The 48 Laws of Power
Let’s dive into the final five of my ten most insightful lessons from Robert Greene’s infamous bestseller.
6. Master the Art of Timing (Law 35)
Never seem to be in a hurry — hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment: sniff out the spirit of times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
This quote from The 48 Laws of Power focuses on the significance of a factor we haven’t really touched on so far. Timing and pacing can make or break pretty much anything. The speech you give at that conference, the joke you crack to warm up your audience, and that long-awaited promotion.
What Greene suggests is to think of time as a malleable concept. To the very least we can influence our own perception and that of other people to achieve our goals. For that purpose, Greene distinguishes between three concepts of time:
Long time: Slowing down allows you to think less emotionally and more strategically. It should therefore be your default. Once you take your time with everything, you realise how pace can be weaponised against you. Imagine a salesperson using the Scarcity Effect to pressure you into a deal to buy your dream car before the opportunity is gone.
Forced time: Here, the idea is to make others hurry — or wait, depending on the situation. This forces them to become impatient, act emotionally and make rash decisions. Reminiscent of the OODA Loop, the goal is to upset the timing of others. Imagine being that salesperson selling dream cars.
End time: This concept is all about acting decisively once an opportunity comes up. None of your patience matters if you don’t have a goal in mind. None of your skilful timing matters if you don’t know when to strike with decisiveness and finality. Imagine outsmarting five car salesmen at once to get the best deals but never closing a single one.
Just observe your life for a week and see: Do you determine the pacing of your life? Or do others rule long time, forced time and end time for you?
7. Disarm and Infuriate With the Mirror Effect (Law 44)
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of the Mirror Effect.
The Mirror Effect is to power what showing instead of telling is to stories. Don’t tell people what they are, show them. There are three types of mirrors Greene describes that I find particularly intriguing:
Neutralising Effect: If you mirror the exact actions of your opponents, they won’t be able to learn from what you do. What they will see is only themselves. This can neutralise your counterparts’ efforts to outsmart you, and even unsettle them.
Narcissus Effect: This mirror is a psychological one. Imagine meeting someone who listens and observes rather than speaks. When they do speak, it feels like they have gained deep insights into your soul; your deepest sorrows and desires. What would it feel like if that person reflected those very ideas back to you?
Moral Effect: Don’t waste time explaining to people how they mistreated you. Mirror their actions to give them a taste of their own medicine. This mirror is not necessarily a tool for revenge. It’s also part of a teacher’s tricks of the trade used to demonstrate a moral lesson rather than explaining it.
What immediately comes to mind is the significance of empathy when it comes to persuasion. I’ve written about this phenomenon in my essays on Rapoport’s Rules and Steelmanning. Both approaches require a change in perspective.
Greene knows: “People are locked in their own experiences.” Much success in life hinges on our ability to lower other people’s resistance by understanding what the world looks like through their eyes. And then mirror their words and behaviour back to them.
8. Never Appear Too Perfect (Law 46)
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.
How do we feel about people who seem to be the epitome of virtue and perfection? They make us suspicious at best and resentful at worst. If we turn the tables we find: A sure sign of success is when people attack us not for making mistakes, but for doing the right things. At the heart of this dynamic is envy, a particularly toxic emotion.
Greene suggests several ways to handle envy. For one, you mustn’t allow envy to take root and instead work to preempt it. Don’t let envy consume you. Use it as motivation to take you to new heights. For two, you should beware of other people’s envy as you become more successful. People will inevitably work against you out of spite.
Known as Tall Poppy Syndrome, this phenomenon has a special place in Australia’s national psyche. If someone accumulates too much success, wealth or notoriety, he or she must be cut down. Greene’s solution is to take power with reluctance and present it as a burden rather than a pleasure. You should also become adept at downplaying your achievements so you remain what Australians may call a fair-dinkum bloke.
Another way around being silently cut down is to conceal your talents and be creatively incompetent. Here, the goal is to display a harmless weakness or vice. None that would call your integrity or expertise into question of course. Pick a weakness that humanises you and makes people pity instead of despise you. For example, use your desk at work to put your full garden gnome collection on display.
9. Do Not Go Past the Mark of Victory (Law 47)
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.
Rarely are we more vulnerable than after a victory. We may revel in grandiosity and overstretch our resources. We may underestimate the role luck and circumstance played in our win. Or we may falsely believe that our previous actions will yield the same results going forward. This is why vigilance in the moment of victory is so important.
Like in writing, there’s a rhythm to power. Like in writing, this rhythm should be varied and adapted continuously to not make yourself predictable. A height of power should therefore be followed by a slowdown. Instead of pushing for more success, consolidate your gains, regroup and do not take more risks.
To be able to slow down once victory is achieved, we should have an idea of what it looks like. A win is useless when you either don’t recognise it or succumb to St George in Retirement Syndrome. This condition slowly throws you into chaos as you lose yourself in a breathless pursuit of increasingly smaller and trivial little wins. Better to stop on a high note.
10. Assume Formlessness (Law 48)
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.
The last lesson from The 48 Laws of Power has made my list because it’s a theme that runs through the whole book. To illustrate the usefulness of being without form, Greene invokes the impracticability of armour. While it provided protection in the short term, its rigidity made the wearer slow and inflexible. Over time, opponents would find vulnerabilities and wear down even the strongest armour.
The better (long-term) strategy would therefore be to aim for formlessness and fluidity. If you’re in constant flux people get confused, which is bad news for anyone who’s trying to understand let alone attack you. But being formless is not that easy. The strategy requires constant flexibility, change and innovation.
For example, following the 48 laws blindly can make you rigid in your thinking and therefore predictable. Indirection and deception live from improvisation. It’s vital to play the game of power with graceful adaptability. As Greene admits: He does not try to follow all of his advice himself as "anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around."
Closing Thoughts
No doubt, The 48 Laws of Power can be used as a ruthless manual for narcissistic psychopaths. But as I suggested in part one, there’s no virtue in feigning innocence or denying the existence of power games either. If we buy into the notion that we cannot opt-out, the best strategy seems to be to acknowledge and master the rules of the game.
There’s no need to violate our conscience in the process. On the contrary. As Greene puts it, mastering the game enables us to “spare others the pain that comes from bungling with power — by playing with fire without knowing its properties.” 🐘
Cheers,
Chris
themindcollection.com