I listened to the audio version of this through Overdrive. Basically an app that links with local
libraries (I got a library card). I don’t
have to pay for books this way, and the selection is actually pretty great. The downside for me personally, is speech speed
is just much slower than my reading speed. Finishing a book around 9 hours vs. finishing
a book around 3 hours… Big
difference. But, since this is utilized
during downtime (commute), then it’s not that bad at all.
There are a few reasons why I went through this
book. First, I confused it with another
book. I remembered another book about leadership
that was in the format of “Laws”… Thought
it was this one. Nope. Second reason is, this is one of those
books that keep on getting recommended by different people or on different
lists. It keeps on showing up! So it had to be read at some point or
another. Other books on that list
include Zero go One, Lean Startup, Why Hard Things are Hard…
The third reason I went through this book is to
use this as an opportunity for my memory exercises. I recently went through an online course that
basically said, don’t be a person that reads through information really quickly
but end up remembering nothing. I feel
like I am kind of in this mode right now. The good thing is, most people are in the mode
of reading through everything slowly, and still not remembering anything. Though, majority of people simply just don’t
read.
I’m sure many people have read The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People, since it is one of the all-time best
sellers. My dad still has 3 copies on
the bookshelf. He made me read it when I
was in middle school. I had to have
another discussion with him on it in college… The truth is, how many people that read the
book still remember what the 7 habits are? I mean, there are ONLY 7 habits. But… Be truthful, most can’t remember them. This is why the 48 Laws of Power is a great
practice.
My methodology of remembering this book. There are 48 laws. This is a great number because it is a
multiple of 12. So I use Chinese
Zodiacs. I link 4 laws with one animal,
and create a story. So for the first
four laws:
1. Never outshine the master
2. Beware of your friends
3. Conceal your intentions
4. Don’t say more than needed
The first animal of the Chinese Zodiac is Mouse.
Now creating a story with any mouse is
kind of ridiculous, so it came down to Mickey or Master Splinter. I remember in my childhood when I watched the
TMNT cartoon, there was a scene where Master Splinter was still human, he was
training with Shredder (?) under the same master. They were trying to bow down, and Shredder
stabbed a knife into Splinter’s shirt against the wall so he couldn’t bow (law
2).
So the story goes like this. Master
Splinter was betrayed be
Shredder. He got pissed, took out a concealed firearms and shot
Shredder to pieces without saying one
word. This short two-line story
helped me remember 4 laws just like that. Good practice, and a lot of bragging rights if
someone asks you about the 48 laws.
Impressions on the content itself
I think the book purposely has a tone of darkness
and cynicism in it. Though most
of these principles can be rephrased in positive light, the market is already
full of them. I think there’s a lot of
marketing reasons behind this.
The laws itself are interesting, they provide me a framework to think about a
lot things. There are a few coworkers
that constantly do things and say things that sounds my internal radar BEEP
BEEP BEEP constantly. I don’t know why
or what words to use to describe how they are fucking me, now I do. They paint a rosy expectation, they make me do
their work, and they take the credit (all are Laws of the book). I do think a lot of the Laws work, but they
don’t always have to be used so negatively. The most important is, if you use them in such
a cynical fashion, know that it will backfire on you like a bitch if others
know what you are doing. I don’t
think you should play with fire if you’re covered in gasoline.
Another book I’m currently reading, Driven – by
Robert Herjavec from Shark tank, provides a lot of business insights. I was able to map a lot of Robert’s insights
into these power laws instead of having to try and remember every little piece
of wisdom Robert throws out. In terms of
numbers though, some Laws are similar or variations of the same concept. I do think it could be trimmed down to maybe
36 Laws of Power, which is still a cool number, and you can still use the
Chinese Zodiac (or Western Horoscope) for memory practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment