[quadcore]

Robert Greene explains in a video his 48th law of power.

The rule is there is no rule. Life is fluid he says. You've got to pickup the little clues, use your intuition and your gut feelings.

This perfectly matches my experience of life. When you arrives in a situation with a premade plan and execute blindly, it often fails dramatically, even if on paper you did exactly what you were supposed to. Especially with people of course. You've got to go with the "flow", read the room, feel the air. Sometimes it almost feels magical. Even the light a particular day will be different and somehow, things are different - the people in the street, the mood of your boss, everything.

The great leaders are masters at that. I often think about the current China leader for example. It's just an example.

Do you picture what a person must pull off to get that seat? It's unimaginable. You've got to smell the "bullets" coming miles away before they're even shot, from a shooter you dont even know. Just on a hunch because that day, the light was different.

[331c8c71]

> Do you picture what a person must pull off to get that seat? It's unimaginable.

On the other hand there is a seat that must be filled and hence there will be somebody taking that place. It's a zero sum game: if you win I lose.

I would rate proving Poincare conjecture and that kind of thing much higher because its _not_ zero-sum and is a pure advancement.

[quadcore]

Thanks for bringing that up.

More and more for practical purposes I tend to believe that - sit tight - everybody is solving or capable of solving the Poincaré conjecture. Let me explain.

Granted some people are simple, but most are actually very gifted at what they do ; it's just that the type of engineering they do is different than yours (or mine, whatever). Besos says "there is a million types of inteligence".

Some are good at making dramas for example - and they'd beat you at that game every single day. Some others are good at, I dont know, working out.

Many people are very very good at playing dumb is actually my very point. And they love that. If you are observant, you'll see little clues that they are geniuses in some ways. It's just that they dont care about advancement. In itself it's a form of dumbness but beside that, they freaking good.

You can easily do x2 on your percieved intelligence and engineering capabilities of people. They way way better at what they do than meet the eye. Especially nowdays as they are educated.

It's very practical to think that way Ive found.

[n4r9]

I'm not sure what point you're making. Chess is zero-sum (modulo draws), but being world #1 is impressive.

[mcmoor]

I guess what he means that being #1 doesn't always means you're that good, maybe the competitors are just lame. Some videos of Olympic 1918 shows that the winner is totally unimpressive because the participants are just few amateurs. But after all it's another function of supply (seat) vs demand (challengers).

[jdeaton]

I would be interested to know exactly which video of Robert Greene's this is. Just finished reading Mastery this morning. Great author and thinker. He is very in tune with human nature and instinct.

[quadcore]

It's on tiktok, where he is active.

[snowpid]

" The great leaders are masters at that. I often think about the current China leader for example. It's just an example. " You mean that guy who brings Chinese economy into troubles and just does one genocide (or two, if you count Tibet).

[keybored]

I love how grand parent used that as an example instead of some boring “business luminary”. Now people are gonna politi-rage in a third of the replies.

[snowpid]

Xi is just a stupid example. He is way from a great leader.

[quadcore]

See my other comment. Some (most?) people dont care about advancement. Or rather, their position on that is complicated for practical purposes.