
The 48 Laws of Power - known
http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/cg/Courses/cgt411/covey/48_laws_of_power.htm
======
blogimus
Call me shallow, but I just can't take seriously anything that reminds me of
the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.

<http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition>

(Yes, Ferengi rules were recently mentioned in Jeff Atwood's blog,
<http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001225.html>)

~~~
aswanson
Granted some of them are silly, but a fair amout of the Ferengi Rules make
sense.

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mynameishere
Surprised everyone here seemed to miss the point. Like "The Prince" this is
descriptive, not instructive. That is, "Here is how powerful people will
attempt to control you..."

~~~
atas
Well, this would mean that being powerful assumes lack of integrity.
Disagreeing with this does not necessarily mean missing the point. I've been
guilty of committing to some of these laws, consciously or not. So, another
use of that list would be as a checkpoint of one's integrity. Kind of.

------
pg
49: In the long term, and for smarter audiences, doing good work beats these
tricks.

~~~
samson
I think thats an unfair assessment of a good book.

I was probably seventeen when I read the book, and have all but forgotten most
of those laws, but I remembered many of the stories. Greene in the book
carefully puts together an array of interesting stories of famous leaders,
generals, businessman that makes the book enjoyable to read whether or not one
agrees with his laws.

My favourite chapter was "Enter action with boldness" which had in it a story
of a poor Korean man named Huh Saeng.
<http://wisdomportal.com/Enlightenment/Huh-Saeng.html>

And I would add that "doing good work" gives you the confidence to "enter
action with boldness".

~~~
pg
It wasn't an assessment of a book, but of the link it was a comment on.

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noonespecial
_Learn to Keep People Dependent on You_

 _To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more
you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for
their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them
enough so that they can do without you._

This one is like death to the IT guy. At first, it seems like job security
until you realize that the neophytes have clustered on your hull like so many
barnacles. Being indispensable is great but it doesn't take many 2 AM "email
emergencies" from the management types to make you want to become a goat
herder.

~~~
randallsquared
Yeah, it actually seems like the more people need you, the _less_ freedom you
have, as long as you have any sense of responsibility toward them at all.

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ShardPhoenix
"Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it
vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike"

Self-describing article?

~~~
jerf
It may be open-ended, and sphinxlike may be a matter of judgment, but for what
it is, that is not a vague article.

~~~
access_denied
And it is not banal.

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jjs
_> If you have no enemies, find a way to make them._

Such as by following these other 47 laws!

~~~
cake
I find much of these rules terrible, at first I believed it was a joke, no
wonder we live in a society in which people feel so miserable !

~~~
csbartus
it has nothing to do with hacking & hackers, it's very oldschool.

however: " As much as they respect brains in Silicon Valley, the message the
Valley sends is: you should be more powerful."

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jhancock
I know a guy that plays by these rules. No one likes him.

~~~
ellyagg
Then it sounds like he's not following the rules very well.

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marcusbooster
Don't forget "The 50th Law", a book he co-authored with 50-cent, available at
a fine bookseller near you. Why bother with Machiavelli when you can get it
with a hip-hop twist.

~~~
eru
Machiavelli is way better than his reputation suggests.

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wschroter
I always notice people seem to read this book and assume that it's an
instructional manual on how to live. It's just making points about the
fundamentals of power.

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alanmeyer
After reading these "laws", it made me think of JK Rowling and how she used
some of these with the Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort) character in the Harry
Potter books.

~~~
buu
I'm thinking of Ayn Rand's Ellsworth Toohey.

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falsestprophet
Come on now guys. This book was written by a pop psychologist. He may have
interesting theories, but he isn't exactly Genghis Khan.

This is one step too close to Opera's book club.

~~~
Encosia
48 Laws and 33 Strategies are excellent. Greene himself is in no way
comparable to those he quotes in his books, but he synthesized an excellent
compilation of knowledge nonetheless.

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PostOnce
Do not outshine the master? Yeah, hiding your talent is a sure way to get
people to recognize your talent, and thereby attain success. I stopped reading
at #1.

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atas
There is an obvious contradiction in these "laws". How can someone look stupid
without damaging of reputation? If you read too much into them I think you'll
find quite many contradictions. Not that I actually take them seriously or I
would bother to read too much into them.

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hendler
Interesting. I'd just get rid of the "The".

Art of war is pretty good too.

<http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html>

------
ao
What's that they say again? Ultimate power ultimately corrupts.

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his
soul?"

~~~
shader
Generally it's "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

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psranga
I bought this book a few years ago (5 IIRC). I started skimming it and got
pretty sad about the things one supposedly had to do to make it. Then I lost
the book a few days later when I left it on a flight.

I took it as a sign; I didn't bother going to go to lost and found or buy
another copy. I wonder if I did the right thing. :)

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ahoyhere
Greene's books are interesting because they are Machiavellian: a mixture of
amoral observation of what is, satirical recommendations and, vice versa,
inexplicit instruction on what to watch out for other people doing to you.

And in A and C they are extremely valuable, and all worth owning and reading.
And the advice does sometimes make sense -- it's written in the extreme to
provoke, but sometimes life is so contradictory that doing "bad" things
tempered with a good intention works out to positive in the final balance.

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c00p3r
That is a guide book for a politican or businessman in developing countries.

In Russia, for example, it could be a bestseller. It is the-way-how-it-works
here.

Unfortunately, people in Russia do not read books anymore.

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jaiwithani
This would be why I'm not that interested in power.

