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Know Your Limits: The Law of Grandiosity

Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/know-your-limits-the-law-of-grandiosity/

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Robert Greene’s new book, The Laws of Human Nature.

We humans have a deep need to think highly of ourselves. If that opinion of our goodness, greatness, and brilliance diverges enough from reality, we become grandiose. We imagine our superiority. Often, a small measure of success will elevate our natural grandiosity to even more dangerous levels. Our high self-opinion has now been confirmed by events. We forget the role that luck may have played in the success, or the contributions of others. We imagine we have the golden touch. Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last. Look for the signs of elevated grandiosity in yourself and in others—overbearing certainty in the positive outcome of your plans; excessive touchiness if criticized; a disdain for any form of authority. Counteract the pull of grandiosity by maintaining a realistic assessment of yourself and your limits. Tie any feelings of greatness to your work, your achievements, and your contributions to society. 

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Macroeconomics – 2. The Aggregate Supply-Aggregate Demand Model and the Classical-Keynesian Debate

  1. The Classical versus Keynesian controversy is primarily a dispute over what?
  2. State Say’s Law.
  3. What was Thomas Malthus’ critique of Say’s Law?
  4. Use the circular flow diagram to illustrate Say’s Law.
  5. Describe the quantity theory of money.
  6. Explain the two major assumptions of the quantity theory of money.
  7. Describe the Keynesian income adjustment mechanism.
  8. Illustrate equilibrium in the aggregate supply-aggregate demand model.
  9. Explain the three reasons why the .aggregate demand curve slopes downward.
  10. List at least five major reasons why the aggregate demand curve shifts.
  11. Why does the aggregate supply curve slope upward?
  12. List at least five reasons why the aggregate supply curve shifts.
  13. Draw and explain the three ranges of the economy.
  14. Draw and describe the Classical price adjustment mechanism.
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The Power of Conspiracy and Secrets

Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/podcast-412-the-power-of-conspiracy-and-secrets/

Baidu link: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1CS_LNE0_m9r08Jim8izifQ

Back in 2016, a bizarre story emerged in pop culture. Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan won a $115 million dollar lawsuit against the gossip website Gawker for publishing a sex tape that had been made without his consent. The victory was somewhat surprising but the real surprise was who was actually behind the lawsuit; it wasn’t Hogan himself, but the billionaire founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel.

Thiel had his own axe to grind against Gawker, and he had been honing it since 2007. He had been plotting to take down Gawker for almost a decade.
What may sound like a tawdry story of celebrity and scandal, actually contains surprisingly potent lessons on revenge, Stoicism, strategy, perseverance, hubris, privacy, and the underrated power of secrets.
My guest today dug into this story and its insights in his new book, Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue. His name is Ryan Holiday, and he’s also the author of Growth Hacker Marketing, The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, andThe Daily Stoic. Today on the show Ryan and I discuss his latest book, and the lessons we can take from a story that reads much like a modern-day Count of Monte Cristo.

Show Highlights

  • Why was Ryan drawn to this story? How did he end up chronicling it?
  • How did Ryan choose an approach to this book? How did he write it differently than most journalists already had?
  • The backstory of Gawker.com and its outing of Peter Thiel
  • Why it took 4+ years for Thiel to realize he could do something about it
  • How did Thiel find and end up paying for Hulk Hogan’s case against Gawker?
  • What Ryan meant in calling Thiel a “high agency” individual
  • Can a person become high agency? Or are you born that way?
  • Why Thiel wants to be underestimated and under-the-radar
  • Why competition is for losers
  • The difference between conspiracy and war
  • Why Thiel sought revenge rather than taking, say, a Stoic approach to the problem
  • Did Thiel go too far? Why was his identity and scheme revealed?
  • Why secrecy can actually be an effective, powerful tool in getting things done
  • The value of privacy in our modern transparent society
  • How did all the players in this story turn out?
  • What happened when Thiel and Denton met in person?
  • Ryan’s takeaways on strategy, getting things done, etc.

 

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Exploring Enactive Empathy: Actively Responding to and Understanding Others

Full paper: https://www.academia.edu/36551497/Exploring_Enactive_Empathy_Actively_Responding_to_and_Understanding_Others

Daniel D. Hutto

School of Humanities and Social Inquiry Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts University of Wollongong

and

Alan Jurgens

School of Humanities and Social Inquiry Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts University of Wollongong

‘I’ll teach you differences’ –

King Lear , Act I, Scene IV

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