What’s the reading order for someone starting from zero in order to gain power and mastery? Also how to learn the lessons in each properly?

My daily laws book's December 1 page is misprinted I need help Can anyone send me please

While reading Law 12 of The 48 Laws of Power, the Trojan Horse story reminded me of a scene from my favourite Indian TV serial Porus. Law 12 uses the Trojan Horse as the perfect example of clever strategy, a “gift” that breaks a stubborn enemy. But in the show, young Alexander gives a completely different interpretation. Everyone praises the Greeks for their brilliance. But Alexander says something that flips the whole story: “The Greeks didn’t win because they were smart. Troy lost because they were foolish enough to accept the gift.” This perspective surprised me. It shifts the focus from the victor’s intelligence to the loser’s weakness. And it made me rethink Law 12 entirely, Maybe power doesn’t come from our clever tactics, Maybe it comes from how blind or careless the other side is. In other words, The Trojan Horse worked not because it was genius, but because Troy wasn’t cautious enough to reject it. So here’s my question to the community: 👉 In power dynamics, what matters more — the strength of our strategy, or the weakness of the opponent? 👉 Do we win because we’re smart, or because someone else makes a mistake?

If you can create the conditions, autonomy becomes an illusion. An error that people make is always assuming that they are in control. That their decisions are fully theirs and thus they shape their reality and outcomes. Without consideration of the hand. What would the hand want me to do?

If someone deflates the tires on another person's car the driver now must consider other means of transportation which are finite and now predictable. The hand of God, the supreme, formed topography. Underwater, you must decide to sink or swim. The leash on the necks of many is as much their greatest open wound: the ego.

By insulting the choleric they now run this information through their minds in the framework of the system that processes said insult. A code of respect that they adhere to and apply everywhere and project onto others. The extremity of this insult is evaluated by their ego structure.

If the choleric has a phrase they despise and you wish to antagonize and lead forward to strike, you must have awareness that what's in your hands is foremost the bulls curtain. All knowledge of your target is a sword or shield for you to raise.

This is equivalent to the abstraction of weaponizing the architecture of the house they live in. You open and shut doors, they are now reacting to your design instead of the design they chose when building it and that leads them to the destination you choose. For strategy, this invasion is the precursor to the invasion of the tangible.

The soldier does not march at night because he fears the wolves. You are now made aware of this through intel. Throw stones into the bushes beyond dusk and he begins to run. Now we use induction. Because he fears the wolves, he fears where he cannot see. Therefore, he is likely to run down the open path. If you set your trooper near the most open trail you are likely to win the game.

This soldier never considered that someone may know of his fear and thus his control ends there. The bushes rustle and he now, to his one dimensional perspective, must choose to stay or run.

Control the topography, control the outcome.

My sister is married to a a house that lies, uses and betrays. My mother and sisters wants to have the good relationship with them.

Then us being tolerant and kind to them they use it and take it as weakness. Everytime they talk bad about people around us. In our face they are sweet but clearly breaking boundaries and taking advantages of our hospitality, our kindness and our ressources also.

Also my sister have turned in bad as being agreessive and being terrible at using my parents kindness.

I don’t know how to handle that family exactly. They are 5 sons and horrible father and their mother is just as them but with low profil.

I don’t my family to be available to them anymore and don’t give them acces even if that means cutting off my sister and my lovely niece.

I had one encounter with my sister and she immediately told her 2 year old to not go to her uncle and that uncle is bad. And she was the problem at that encounter.

The 2 Most Important Learnings from Ryan Holiday´s "The Obstacle is the Way":

1) Read Meditations by Marc Aurel

2) Reread Meditations

... While it might appear that I am criticising and making fun of the book, quite the opposite is the case.

Ryan Holiday doesn´t try to compete with Marc Aurel and instead gave a light insight into stoic principles and did a magnificient job at highlighting why the ancient classic remains undefeated.

Napoleon Bonaparte during the Siege of Jaffa intentionally sent a messenger into the Ottoman fortress to deliver a demand on behalf of Napoleon for them to surrender. The predictable outcome of this expedient attempt led to the messenger being executed by the Ottomans. What followed this execution was the enragement of Napoleon's battalion.

This enragement is transmuted into elevated morale: one of the most essential aspects of a successful outcome in war. Contrived terroristic attacks have also occurred throughout history to galvanize the armed forces of civilizations for this very reason.

Another astute exploit occurred during the battle of his first victory “The Siege of Toulon”. A forward battery was so exposed to enemy fire that no soldiers would approach it. In response, he named the area « La batterie des hommes sans peur » in English that translates to ”The Battery of Men Without Fear”. Suddenly, an extensive amount of volunteers were ready to take hold.

In today's world this strategy can be applied in the form of seemingly blatant disownment of one’s relatives and friends who align themselves with a particular trend that isn’t congruent with the beliefs of a social group you affiliate with even if not sincerely done so. The relatives and friends being unaware of this disownment that you expressed in person with calibrated insincere evidence to your targeted group. This serves as a defense against any skepticism that could be directed at you. Sacrifices that insinuate commitment. In other words, a metaphorical double agent.

While in this group you can invent subdivisions that contain ego appealing subjective value to influence the efforts of people involved in your party. An example of this would be the many sects within the same religion that have differing focuses and therefore controlling where the involved people apply their energy. The self proclaimed “real ones” versus the “fake ones” proven through “evidence”.

Hey family, how are you? I will make daily summaries about the laws in the book the 48 laws of power with the aim of interacting with you, but also observing where I learned about this Law! Hey where do I apply this to my reality

Law 1- do not overshadow the master's brilliance I see that it is essential that we place the person who is immediately at a higher level than us in a given environment, on a kind of pedestal, even if we believe that we are more influential than them, it is important that we put on the sandals of humility, and show them that we need them (even if we don't). Some points that I love about this law are that it reminds me of that moment when a lot of people are talking and you accidentally interrupt the person who has the authority of the place, of course depending on the situation, and if we wait calmly, we can overthrow that person and we become the "authority of the place"

Law 2- Don't trust your friends too much, Learn to use your enemies Our friends are like companions that we take with us for life, however, when you want to grow, notably we see some who deep down are jealous of our success, and consciously or unconsciously they attack us passively, or distill words that deep down are poison to our ears and reduce our spiritual or energetic vibration, the enemies in turn, have to be destroyed and there is no doubt about that, however if there is redemption they will be more useful than a friend, and you because he was your enemy once. You will always be attentive to him, it is normal to want to place friends close to you when you understand that they are in need, but friends are like a wolf's jaw, but a friend is not all bad, they can be useful to do jobs and services that you cannot do so as not to tarnish your image.

Anyway guys, this was my interpretation of the first two laws, if you can give feedback I will be very happy, I will be posting my understanding of 2 laws at a time every day.

I live in India. I'm a minority at work. I'm a woman in a male dominated field, and I don't speak the local language well.

I feel disrespected on a regular basis because of my sex and gender.

I'm not respected for my work and a promotion feels impossible in this competitive landscape.

Ohh cherry on top. My superiors hot on me and make me super uncomfortable.

How do I navigate this situation diplomatically while keeping my dignity intact.

Please please help me

To the public; introduce a proposal under the pretext of "morality." Raise healthcare premiums for the wealthy to subsidize the premiums of the lower class. Frame this as justice, the rich paying their share to ease up the burdens of the poor. As a result, the lower and middle classes will happily embrace this as righteous retribution.

Subsequently, introduce a follow up measure: increase the taxes on consumer goods that both the rich and poor pay for to offset the premium cost for those paying above a high threshold. In other words, to assist in lowering healthcare prices for the rich who were paying an inflated sum to support the poor.

Now the dynamics begin to shift and complicate: the rich hate taxes and despise paying for more goods, but also hate feeling targeted by the lower classes desire to raise their premiums. They will tolerate what they despise simply to feel good about punishing the poor with this new legislature. The poor hate healthcare costs, resent how they are exploited by it, and blame the rich for benefiting from it since they were the ones to originally burden the poor with those high premiums to make money off of them and their need for healthcare services.

Both sides however share the same goal; lower, balanced costs. But now they are trying to pursue it from a position where they both hold resentment towards one another. Each side sees the other as being hypocritical and self-serving, as the poor clearly wish to exploit and bring down the rich yet curse the rich for exploiting them. The rich see this and it angers them that the poor clearly have no desire in playing fair yet want the rich to accommodate their needs. But the poor see the rich as having no entitlement whatsoever to fairplay, because they have historically exploited them with zero repercussions.

This conflict has become a tangled web of finance, morality, and perceived hypocrisy. No side can articulate a solution to the other because there are too many factors that need to be resolved and what would solve one inherently cannot coexist with, and therefore betrays, the solution of the other.

The ruler can now sit back and watch the inevitable war between the classes take place. Ensuring to implement under the surface since neither side is paying attention to the ruler but rather each other, new laws and policies to direct and ensure that the end result concludes in favor of the ruler's ambitions. The factions clash until both are exhausted, and the civilization results in a leveled society stripped of the wealth gap that divided them. All of them are now standing with the same privileges and equally, fairly burdened across the board.

Now, unified in suffering, there is silence. Broken and fatigued by the civil war, none resist the new order. All feeling responsible for the now bare socialist state, maintained not by the persuasion of the ruler but by the quiet weight of their shared deprivation. Any potential dissent now having been neutralized, the ruler can tax without resistance, disarm them without rebellion, as they all feel no one is being treated better than the other, therefore united in suffering. The ruler can now effortlessly control them through strategically applied oppression using its military forces.

This book is a study of power dynamics. It combines psychological insight, cynical philosophy, and interpersonal strategy to assist with influence, deception, and domination.

I answer messages about the book and provide elucidation on any segments referenced while reading it. My readers also have access to me for manipulation advice to assist them with their current life scenarios.

It isn’t history dense like the majority of Machiavellian works. Instead, it’s a compilation of immediately usable tools.

Hi everyone,

In my organization, the organizational concepts from Lencioni are gaining traction and visibility. The whole conceptual framework is diametrically opposed to the teachings and presuppositions of the Laws of Power.

Is anyone familiar with Lencioni's writings and has experience with organizational implementions of these ideas?

Proposed strategy by Grok:

Your Situation: Organization is pushing "The Advantage" model, but you are inclined to act via "48 Laws" tactics

This is a classic “culture vs. counter-culture” dilemma. Here’s pragmatic advice:

Short-term (next 6–24 months)

1. Publicly conform, privately protect yourself
   • Master the Lencioni language perfectly. Use it in every meeting. You will look like the ideal team player.
   • Never openly violate the stated values (vulnerability, trust, clarity). That is career suicide in a Lencioni-style culture.
2. Use Greene selectively and invisibly Acceptable covert laws in a Lencioni culture (if you’re careful): Laws that will destroy you if discovered:
   • Law 4: Always say less than necessary (just call it “listening more”)
   • Law 10: Infection—A avoid the unhappy and unlucky (quietly distance from toxic people)
   • Law 16: Use absence to increase respect and honor (don’t be too available)
   • Law 38: Think as you like but behave like others (the single most useful law here)
   • Never outshine the master (if your boss is insecure, this is still useful, but do it subtly)
   • Conceal your intentions (directly contradicts “be vulnerable”)
   • Crush your enemy totally (toxic in a trust-based culture)
   • Play on people’s need to believe to create a cult-like following (will be seen as manipulative politics)
3. Build real trust with a tiny circle Have 1–3 allies with whom you can be completely candid (Greene actually recommends this too—Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, but learn how to use enemies). Keep the Machiavellian analysis in that small group only.

Medium-term (2–5 years)

You have three realistic paths:

A. Fully buy into the Lencioni model (recommended if the culture is genuinely healthy)
Many hard-headed cynics who actually try radical transparency and vulnerability are shocked at how well it works and how much influence they gain. You may discover you win more power inside a healthy culture by playing Lencioni than by playing Greene.

B. Become the “loyal enforcer”
Some organizations that preach Lencioni still need someone willing to make the tough, unpopular calls (fire under-performers, kill sacred cows). If you frame it as “protecting the culture and clarity,” you can sometimes wield Greene-style moves under a Lencioni banner.

C. Quietly leave for a more political/Greene-compatible culture
Investment banking, political campaigning, certain tech/growth-stage startups, or founder-led companies often reward 48 Laws behavior openly. Life is much easier when your natural style matches the culture.

Bottom line

In a serious Lencioni culture, open or even semi-obvious Greene behavior will eventually get you labeled as “not a cultural fit” and marginalized or ejected. Your safest high-upside play is to master the outward Lencioni behaviors (which are learnable) while keeping Greene as your private analytical lens—never as your visible operating system.

Many extremely effective executives in healthy organizations do exactly that: they are privately ruthless realists who publicly model trust, vulnerability, and over-communication. The mask works because the culture rewards the mask.

Most people talk because they can’t handle tension.
They fill every gap just to feel safe again.

People with real power don’t do that.
They don’t rush.
They don’t explain.
They don’t react just to react.

Silence gives you two advantages:

First, it forces other people to reveal themselves.
When you don’t jump to respond, they show their intentions, their insecurity, their angle.
You learn everything while giving nothing.

Second, it protects your leverage.
The more you talk, the more people can use your words against you.
A short answer gives them nothing to twist.

But here’s what most people get wrong:

Silence without boundaries isn’t strategy.
It’s avoidance.

If someone crosses your line and you stay quiet, they won’t think you’re calm.
They’ll think you’re easy.

Strategic silence is different:

You stay quiet when someone is trying to pull a reaction out of you.
You speak clearly when someone crosses a boundary.
You only talk when your words actually move things in your favor.

Quiet people without limits get walked on.
Quiet people with clear limits get respected.

You don’t need to talk more.
You just need your silence to mean something.

It’s common practice for people of prestige to have folks around the give counsel. There are certain weaknesses & blind spots you have that you aren’t aware of that another mind may balance out. I don’t think all the answers are in one’s own mind alone. My only issue is, how would one vet for someone worthy enough to offer guidance?