Laws of Power

I like books. Recently however I’ve particularly come to enjoy audiobooks. Many people regularly lose an hour of their day to travel between their home and their work. Some lose more. For that whole hour which I used to lose I now listen to someone more knowledgeable than me speak about something that I want to be educated in.

As is my custom I try to expose myself to things that I don’t know much about or people that offer viewpoints that differ from my own view. Sometimes I’ll listen to someone I’m familiar with, I’ve spruiked a few of those here before. Sometimes I just listen to something that grabs my attention. A book by Robert Greene entitled The 48 laws of Power was an example of a book like that.

Normally I put out content about every two weeks. This year I’m using every second post to write about someone or some organisation which is doing useful work. After imbibing The 48 Laws of Power however I’m just not in that headspace. My current headspace requires a cudgel.

I forced myself to sludge my way through Greene’s book and I can confidently say that it is truly terrible. I’m sure I’ve read worse but I’m genuinely struggling to recall what. I can think of one use for the material. Shaun Micallef could richly mine this work and deliver some truly cutting social satire.

The book is a series of ‘laws’ which the author seems convinced will help the reader to build their own power. Law four advises that you should always say less than necessary. Law six requires you to court attention at all cost. I’m not convinced that dressing ostentatiously whilst impersonating a mute will ‘build’ anything other than ridicule.

But that’s ok because law sixteen suggests that you should use absence to increase respect and honour. This fits perfectly with law twenty-five in which you are to re-create yourself. So I can confidently disappear from work, change into some normal clothes (still saying nothing) thus increasing the honour and respect I receive in the workplace. Perfect!

This plan will fit perfectly with law seventeen in which I should endeavour to keep others suspended in terror by cultivating an air of unpredictability. Surely no one would expect the silent guy in the purple poker-dot suit with the brown shoes and the green bowler hat to go home.

I’m confident that if I follow this tactic fairly soon I’ll have managed to tick off law twenty-seven in which I should play on people’s need to believe by creating a cult like following.  Who wouldn’t get behind a person in a purple suit who arrived looking ridiculous, says nothing, then leaves. I know who would get behind that person. Fucking no-one.

This book offers no actual evidence to support the authors ideas. It’s just a series of poorly though out ideas followed by some occasionally accurate historical anecdotes. As each law concludes, some classical music plays. The music was actually quite enjoyable. I could go on, but instead I’d like to focus on the very first of Green’s ’laws’

Never Outshine the Master

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress

them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire

fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain

the heights of power.

This is truly awful advice. Consider for a moment that your direct superior may be more or less competent than you are. The best way to determine this is to provide them with you best work and see how they respond to that.

Sometimes your superior does respond with fear and insecurity. Occasionally what you have done simply goes straight over their head. In any case if your superior does respond with fear and insecurity you can be fairly confident that you know what you are dealing with.

Once you have established that you are working for someone who isn’t particularly competent you can then proceed with the only sensible option. Leave. Don’t waste your time slaving away for someone who doesn’t appreciate you and who is not able to advance your career? Simply leave.

But what if your superior responds well? Competent people rarely become insecure when they meet other competent people. Relief is usually the overriding emotion. Relief that they have found someone they can rely on. Someone that they will stay in contact with. Someone who they will look to when they move on. Someone who they might recommend for their position should they leave. Someone they might hire again if they move up themselves.

By not submitting your best work your robbing yourself of future allies. You’re also delaying the day when you might meet the person who might really help your career because you’re stuck working for someone who isn’t particularly competent. If you want to rise you have to shine.