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The Seismic Acquisition Method Researching for the Complex Mountainous Terrain in YXL Area Qaidam Basin LUO Qifeng, *, AN Peijun, NING Hongxiao, ZHANG Lijun, YANG Lingjun Language: english File: PDF, 10.37 MB Your tags: 0 / 0

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Xanth 16 - Demons Don't Dream Piers Anthony Language: english File: ZIP, 953 KB Your tags: 0 / 0

Also by Robert Greene
Mastery
The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)
The 33 Strategies of War (a Joost Elffers Production)
The Art of Seduction (a Joost Elffers Production)
The 48 Laws of Power (a Joost Elffers Production)

VIKING
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2018 by Robert Greene
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes
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ISBN 9780525428145 (hardcover)
ISBN 9780698184541 (ebook)
ISBN 9780525561804 (international edition)
Version_1

To my mother

Contents
Also by Robert Greene
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
1 Master Your Emotional Self
The Law of Irrationality
The Inner Athena
Step One: Recognize the Biases
Step Two: Beware the Inflaming Factors
Step Three: Strategies Toward Bringing Out the Rational Self
2 Transform Self-love into Empathy
The Law of Narcissism
The Narcissistic Spectrum
Examples of Narcissistic Types
3 See Through People’s Masks
The Law of Role-playing
The Second Language
Observational Skills
Decoding Keys
The Art of Impression Management
4 Determine the Strength of People’s Character
The Law of Compulsive Behavior
The Pattern
Character Signs
Toxic Types
The Superior Character
5 Become an Elusive Object of Desire
The Law of Covetousness
The Object of Desire

Strategies for Stimulating Desire
The Supreme Desire
6 Elevate Your Perspective
The Law of Shortsightedness
Moments of Madness
Four Signs of Shortsightedness and Strategies to Overcome Them
The Farsighted Human
7 Soften People’s Resistance by Confirming Their Self-opinion
The Law of Defensiveness
The Influence Game
Five Strategies for Becoming a Master Persuader
The Flexib; le Mind—Self-strategies
8 Change Your Circumstances by Changing Your Attitude
The Law of Self-sabotage
The Ultimate Freedom
The Constricted (Negative) Attitude
The Expansive (Positive) Attitude
9 Confront Your Dark Side
The Law of Repression
The Dark Side
Deciphering the Shadow: Contradictory Behavior
The Integrated Human
10 Beware the Fragile Ego
The Law of Envy
Fatal Friends
Signs of Envy
Envier Types
Envy Triggers
Beyond Envy
11 Know Your Limits
The Law of Grandiosity
The Success Delusion
The Grandiose Leader
Practical Grandiosity
12 Reconnect to the Masculine or Feminine Within You
The Law of Gender Rigidity
The Authentic Gender
Gender Projection—Types

The Original Man/Woman
13 Advance with a Sense of Purpose
The Law of Aimlessness
The Voice
Strategies for Developing a High Sense of Purpose
The Lure of False Purposes
14 Resist the Downward Pull of the Group
The Law of Conformity
An Experiment in Human Nature
The Court and Its Courtiers
The Reality Group
15 Make Them Want to Follow You
The Law of Fickleness
The Entitlement Curse
Strategies for Establishing Authority
The Inner Authority
16 See the Hostility Behind the Friendly Façade
The Law of Aggression
The Sophisticated Aggressor
The Source of Human Aggression
Passive Aggression—Its Strategies and How to Counter Them
Controlled Aggression
17 Seize the Historical Moment
The Law of Generational Myopia
The Rising Tide
The Generational Phenomenon
Generational Patterns
Strategies for Exploiting the Spirit of the Times
The Human Beyond Time and Death
18 Meditate on Our Common Mortality
The Law of Death Denial
The Bullet in the Side
A Philosophy of Life Through Death
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Introduction
If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity . . . you must be
careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an
addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the
character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the
mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.
—Arthur Schopenhauer

T

hroughout the course of our lives, we inevitably have to deal with a
variety of individuals who stir up trouble and make our lives
difficult and unpleasant. Some of these individuals are leaders or
bosses, some are colleagues, and some are friends. They can be
aggressive or passive-aggressive, but they are generally masters at
playing on our emotions. They often appear charming and refreshingly
confident, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and we fall under
their spell. Only when it is too late do we discover that their confidence
is irrational and their ideas ill-conceived. Among colleagues, they can
be those who sabotage our work or careers out of secret envy, excited
to bring us down. Or they could be colleagues or hires who reveal, to
our dismay, that they are completely out for themselves, using us as
stepping-stones.
What inevitably happens in these situations is that we are caught off
guard, not expecting such behavior. Often these types will hit us with
elaborate cover stories to justify their actions, or blame handy
scapegoats. They know how to confuse us and draw us into a drama
they control. We might protest or become angry, but in the end we feel
rather helpless—the damage is done. Then another such type enters
our life, and the same story repeats itself.
We often notice a similar sensation of confusion and helplessness
when it comes to ourselves and our own behavior. For instance, we
suddenly say something that offends our boss or colleague or friend—
we are not quite sure where it came from, but we are frustrated to find
that some anger and tension from within has leaked out in a way that
we regret. Or perhaps we enthusiastically throw our weight into some
project or scheme, only to realize it was quite foolish and a terrible

waste of time. Or perhaps we fall in love with a person who is precisely
the wrong type for us and we know it, but we cannot help ourselves.
What has come over us, we wonder?
In these situations, we catch ourselves falling into self-destructive
patterns of behavior that we cannot seem to control. It is as if we
harbor a stranger within us, a little demon who operates independently
of our willpower and pushes us into doing the wrong things. And this
stranger within us is rather weird, or at least weirder than how we
imagine ourselves.
What we can say about these two things—people’s ugly actions and
our own occasionally surprising behavior—is that we usually have no
clue as to what causes them. We might latch onto some simple
explanations: “That person is evil, a sociopath” or “Something came
over me; I wasn’t myself.” But such pat descriptions do not lead to any
understanding or prevent the same patterns from recurring. The truth
is that we humans live on the surface, reacting emotionally to what
people say and do. We form opinions of others and ourselves that are
rather simplified. We settle for the easiest and most convenient story
to tell ourselves.
What if, however, we could dive below the surface and see deep
within, getting closer to the actual roots of what causes human
behavior? What if we could understand why some people turn envious
and try to sabotage our work, or why their misplaced confidence causes
them to imagine themselves as godlike and infallible? What if we could
truly fathom why people suddenly behave irrationally and reveal a
much darker side to their character, or why they are always ready to
provide a rationalization for their behavior, or why we continually turn
to leaders who appeal to the worst in us? What if we could look deep
inside and judge people’s character, avoiding the bad hires and
personal relationships that cause us so much emotional damage?
If we really understood the roots of human behavior, it would be
much harder for the more destructive types to continually get away
with their actions. We would not be so easily charmed and misled. We
would be able to anticipate their nasty and manipulative maneuvers
and see through their cover stories. We would not allow ourselves to
get dragged into their dramas, knowing in advance that our interest is
what they depend on for their control. We would finally rob them of

their power through our ability to look into the depths of their
character.
Similarly, with ourselves, what if we could look within and see the
source of our more troubling emotions and why they drive our
behavior, often against our own wishes? What if we could understand
why we are so compelled to desire what other people have, or to
identify so strongly with a group that we feel contempt for those who
are on the outside? What if we could find out what causes us to lie
about who we are, or to inadvertently push people away?
Being able to understand more clearly that stranger within us would
help us to realize that it is not a stranger at all but very much a part of
ourselves, and that we are far more mysterious, complex, and
interesting than we had imagined. And with that awareness we would
be able to break the negative patterns in our lives, stop making excuses
for ourselves, and gain better control of what we do and what happens
to us.
Having such clarity about ourselves and others could change the
course of our lives in so many ways, but first we must clear up a
common misconception: we tend to think of our behavior as largely
conscious and willed. To imagine that we are not always in control of
what we do is a frightening thought, but in fact it is the reality. We are
subject to forces from deep within us that drive our behavior and that
operate below the level of our awareness. We see the results—our
thoughts, moods, and actions—but have little conscious access to what
actually moves our emotions and compels us to behave in certain ways.
Look at our anger, for instance. We usually identify an individual or
a group as the cause of this emotion. But if we were honest and dug
down deeper, we would see that what often triggers our anger or
frustration has deeper roots. It could be something in our childhood or
some particular set of circumstances that triggers the emotion. We can
discern distinct patterns if we look—when this or that happens, we get
angry. But in the moment that we feel anger, we are not reflective or
rational—we merely ride the emotion and point fingers. We could say
something similar about a whole slew of emotions that we feel—
specific types of events trigger sudden confidence, or insecurity, or
anxiety, or attraction to a particular person, or hunger for attention.
Let us call the collection of these forces that push and pull at us
from deep within human nature. Human nature stems from the

particular wiring of our brains, the configuration of our nervous
system, and the way we humans process emotions, all of which
developed and emerged over the course of the five million years or so
of our evolution as a species. We can ascribe many of the details of our
nature to the distinct way we evolved as a social animal to ensure our
survival—learning to cooperate with others, coordinating our actions
with the group on a high level, creating novel forms of communication
and ways of maintaining group discipline. This early development lives
on within us and continues to determine our behavior, even in the
modern, sophisticated world we live in.
To take one example, look at the evolution of human emotion. The
survival of our earliest ancestors depended on their ability to
communicate with one another well before the invention of language.
They evolved new and complex emotions—joy, shame, gratitude,
jealousy, resentment, et cetera. The signs of these emotions could be
read immediately on their faces, communicating their moods quickly
and effectively. They became extremely permeable to the emotions of
others as a way to bind the group more tightly together—to feel joy or
grief as one—or to remain united in the face of danger.
To this day, we humans remain highly susceptible to the moods and
emotions of those around us, compelling all kinds of behavior on our
part—unconsciously imitating others, wanting what they have, getting
swept up in viral feelings of anger or outrage. We imagine we’re acting
of our own free will, unaware of how deeply our susceptibility to the
emotions of others in the group is affecting what we do and how we
respond.
We can point to other such forces that emerged from this deep past
and that similarly mold our everyday behavior—for instance, our need
to continually rank ourselves and measure our self-worth through our
status is a trait that is noticeable among all hunter-gatherer cultures,
and even among chimpanzees, as are our tribal instincts, which cause
us to divide people into insiders or outsiders. We can add to these
primitive qualities our need to wear masks to disguise any behavior
that is frowned upon by the tribe, leading to the formation of a shadow
personality from all the dark desires we have repressed. Our ancestors
understood this shadow and its dangerousness, imagining it originated
from spirits and demons that needed to be exorcised. We rely on a
different myth—“something came over me.”

Once this primal current or force within us reaches the level of
consciousness, we have to react to it, and we do so depending on our
individual spirit and circumstances, usually explaining it away
superficially without really understanding it. Because of the precise
way in which we evolved, there are a limited number of these forces of
human nature, and they lead to the behavior mentioned above—envy,
grandiosity, irrationality, shortsightedness, conformity, aggression,
and passive aggression, to name a few. They also lead to empathy and
other positive forms of human behavior.
For thousands of years, it has been our fate to largely grope in the
shadows when it comes to understanding ourselves and our own
nature. We have labored under so many illusions about the human
animal—imagining we descended magically from a divine source, from
angels instead of primates. We have found any signs of our primitive
nature and our animal roots deeply distressing, something to deny and
repress. We have covered up our darker impulses with all kinds of
excuses and rationalizations, making it easier for some people to get
away with the most unpleasant behavior. But finally we’re at a point
where we can overcome our resistance to the truth about who we are
through the sheer weight of knowledge we have now accumulated
about human nature.
We can exploit the vast literature in psychology amassed over the
last one hundred years, including detailed studies of childhood and the
impact of our early development (Melanie Klein, John Bowlby, Donald
Winnicott), as well as works on the roots of narcissism (Heinz Kohut),
the shadow sides of our personality (Carl Jung), the roots of our
empathy (Simon Baron-Cohen), and the configuration of our emotions
(Paul Ekman). We can now cull the many advances in the sciences that
can aid us in our self-understanding—studies of the brain (Antonio
Damasio, Joseph E. LeDoux), of our unique biological makeup
(Edward O. Wilson), of the relationship between the body and the
mind (V. S. Ramachandran), of primates (Frans de Waal) and huntergatherers (Jared Diamond), of our economic behavior (Daniel
Kahneman), and of how we operate in groups (Wilfred Bion, Elliot
Aronson).
We can also include in this the works of certain philosophers
(Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, José Ortega y Gasset) who
have illuminated so many aspects of human nature, as well as the
insights of many novelists (George Eliot, Henry James, Ralph Ellison),

who are often the most sensitive to the unseen parts of our behavior.
And finally, we can include the rapidly expanding library of
biographies now available, revealing human nature in depth and in
action.
This book is an attempt to gather together this immense storehouse
of knowledge and ideas from different branches (see the bibliography
for the key sources), to piece together an accurate and instructive guide
to human nature, basing itself on the evidence, not on particular
viewpoints or moral judgments. It is a brutally realistic appraisal of our
species, dissecting who we are so we can operate with more awareness.
Consider The Laws of Human Nature a kind of codebook for
deciphering people’s behavior—ordinary, strange, destructive, the full
gamut. Each chapter deals with a particular aspect or law of human
nature. We can call them laws in that under the influence of these
elemental forces, we humans tend to react in relatively predictable
ways. Each chapter has the story of some iconic individual or
individuals who illustrate the law (negatively or positively), along with
ideas and strategies on how to deal with yourself and others under the
influence of this law. Each chapter ends with a section on how to
transform this basic human force into something more positive and
productive, so that we are no longer passive slaves to human nature
but actively transforming it.
You might be tempted to imagine that this knowledge is a bit oldfashioned. After all, you might argue, we are now so sophisticated and
technologically advanced, so progressive and enlightened; we have
moved well beyond our primitive roots; we are in the process of
rewriting our nature. But the truth is in fact the opposite—we have
never been more in the thrall of human nature and its destructive
potential than now. And by ignoring this fact, we are playing with fire.
Look at how the permeability of our emotions has only been
heightened through social media, where viral effects are continually
sweeping through us and where the most manipulative leaders are able
to exploit and control us. Look at the aggression that is now openly
displayed in the virtual world, where it is so much easier to play out
our shadow sides without repercussions. Notice how our propensities
to compare ourselves with others, to feel envy, and to seek status
through attention have only become intensified with our ability to
communicate so quickly with so many people. And finally, look at our

tribal tendencies and how they have now found the perfect medium to
operate in—we can find a group to identify with, reinforce our tribal
opinions in a virtual echo chamber, and demonize any outsiders,
leading to mob intimidation. The potential for mayhem stemming
from the primitive side of our nature has only increased.
It is simple: Human nature is stronger than any individual, than
any institution or technological invention. It ends up shaping what we
create to reflect itself and its primitive roots. It moves us around like
pawns.
Ignore the laws at your own peril. Refusing to come to terms with
human nature simply means that you are dooming yourself to patterns
beyond your control and to feelings of confusion and helplessness.

—
The Laws of Human Nature is designed to immerse you in all aspects
of human behavior and illuminate its root causes. If you let it guide
you, it will radically alter how you perceive people and your entire
approach to dealing with them. It will also radically change how you
see yourself. It will accomplish these shifts in perspective in the
following ways:
First, the Laws will work to transform you into a calmer and more
strategic observer of people, helping to free you from all the
emotional drama that needlessly drains you.
Being around people stirs up our anxieties and insecurities as to
how others perceive us. Once we feel such emotions, it becomes very
hard to observe people as we are drawn into our own feelings,
evaluating what people say and do in personal terms—do they like me
or dislike me? The Laws will help you avoid falling into this trap by
revealing that people are generally dealing with emotions and issues
that have deep roots. They’re experiencing some desires and
disappointments that predate you by years and decades. You cross
their path at a particular moment and become the convenient target of
their anger or frustration. They’re projecting onto you certain qualities
they want to see. In most cases, they’re not relating to you as an
individual.

This should not upset you but liberate you. The book will teach you
to stop taking personally their insinuating comments, shows of
coldness, or moments of irritation. The more you grasp this, the easier
it will be to react not with your emotions but rather with the desire to
understand where their behavior might come from. You will feel much
calmer in the process. And as this takes root in you, you will be less
prone to moralize and judge people; instead you will accept them and
their flaws as part of human nature. People will like you all the more as
they sense this tolerant attitude in you.
Second, the Laws will make you a master interpreter of the cues
that people continually emit, giving you a much greater ability to
judge their character.
Normally, if we pay attention to people’s behavior, we are in a rush
to fit their actions into categories and to hurry to conclusions, so we
settle for the judgment that suits our own preconceptions. Or we
accept their self-serving explanations. The Laws will rid you of this
habit by making it clear how easy it is to misread people and how
deceptive first impressions can be. You will slow yourself down,
mistrust your initial judgment, and instead train yourself to analyze
what you see.
You will think in terms of opposites—when people overtly display
some trait, such as confidence or hypermasculinity, they are most often
concealing the contrary reality. You will realize that people are
continually playing to the public, making a show of being progressive
and saintly only to better disguise their shadow. You will see the signs
of this shadow leaking out in everyday life. If people take an action that
seems out of character, you will take note: what often appears out of
character is actually more of their true character. If people are
essentially lazy or foolish, they leave clues to this in the smallest of
details that you can pick up well before their behavior harms you. The
ability to gauge people’s true worth, their degree of loyalty and
conscientiousness, is one of the most important skills you can possess,
helping you avoid the bad hires, partnerships, and relationships that
can make your life miserable.
Third, the Laws will empower you to take on and outthink the toxic
types who inevitably cross your path and who tend to cause longterm emotional damage.

Aggressive, envious, and manipulative people don’t usually
announce themselves as such. They have learned to appear charming
in initial encounters, to use flattery and other means of disarming us.
When they surprise us with their ugly behavior, we feel betrayed,
angry, and helpless. They create constant pressure, knowing that in
doing so they overwhelm our minds with their presence, making it
doubly hard to think straight or strategize.
The Laws will teach you how to identify these types in advance,
which is your greatest defense against them. Either you will steer clear
of them or, foreseeing their manipulative actions, you will not be
blindsided and thus will be better able to maintain your emotional
balance. You will learn to mentally cut them down to size and focus on
the glaring weaknesses and insecurities behind all of their bluster. You
will not fall for their myth, and this will neutralize the intimidation
they depend on. You will scoff at their cover stories and elaborate
explanations for their selfish behavior. Your ability to stay calm will
infuriate them and often push them into overreaching or making a
mistake.
Instead of being weighed down by these encounters, you might even
come to appreciate them as a chance to hone your skills of self-mastery
and toughen yourself up. Outsmarting just one of these types will give
you a great deal of confidence that you can handle the worst in human
nature.
Fourth, the Laws will teach you the true levers for motivating and
influencing people, making your path in life that much easier.
Normally, when we meet resistance to our ideas or plans, we cannot
help trying to directly change people’s minds by arguing, lecturing, or
cajoling them, all of which makes them more defensive. The Laws will
teach you that people are naturally stubborn and resistant to influence.
You must begin any attempt by lowering their resistance and never
inadvertently feeding their defensive tendencies. You will train
yourself to discern their insecurities and never inadvertently stir them
up. You will think in terms of their self-interest and the self-opinion
they need validated.
Understanding the permeability of emotions, you will learn that the
most effective means of influence is to alter your moods and attitude.
People are responding to your energy and demeanor even more than to
your words. You will get rid of any defensiveness on your part. Instead,

feeling relaxed and genuinely interested in the other person will have a
positive and hypnotic effect. You will learn that as a leader your best
means of moving people in your direction lies in setting the right tone
through your attitude, empathy, and work ethic.
Fifth, the Laws will make you realize how deeply the forces of
human nature operate within you, giving you the power to alter your
own negative patterns.
Our natural response to reading or hearing about the darker
qualities in human nature is to exclude ourselves. It is always the other
person who is narcissistic, irrational, envious, grandiose, aggressive, or
passive-aggressive. We almost always see ourselves as having the best
intentions. If we go astray, it is the fault of circumstances or people
forcing us to react negatively. The Laws will make you stop once and
for all this self-deluding process. We are all cut from the same cloth,
and we all share the same tendencies. The sooner you realize this, the
greater your power will be in overcoming these potential negative traits
within you. You will examine your own motives, look at your own
shadow, and become aware of your own passive-aggressive tendencies.
This will make it that much easier to spot such traits in others.
You will also become humbler, realizing you’re not superior to
others in the way you had imagined. This will not make you feel guilty
or weighed down by your self-awareness, but quite the opposite. You
will accept yourself as a complete individual, embracing both the good
and the bad, dropping your falsified self-image as a saint. You will feel
relieved of your hypocrisies and free to be more yourself. People will be
drawn to this quality in you.
Sixth, the Laws will transform you into a more empathetic
individual, creating deeper and more satisfying bonds with the
people around you.
We humans are born with a tremendous potential for
understanding people on a level that is not merely intellectual. It is a
power developed by our earliest ancestors, in which they learned how
to intuit the moods and feelings of others by placing themselves in
their perspective.
The Laws will instruct you in how to bring out this latent power to
the highest degree possible. You will learn to slowly cut off your
incessant interior monologue and listen more closely. You will train

yourself to assume the other’s viewpoint as best you can. You will use
your imagination and experiences to help you feel how they might feel.
If they are describing something painful, you have your own painful
moments to draw upon as analogues. You will not be simply intuitive,
but rather you will analyze the information you glean in this empathic
fashion, gaining insights. You will continually cycle between empathy
and analysis, always updating what you observe and increasing your
ability to see the world through their eyes. You will notice a physical
sensation of connection between you and the other that will emerge
from this practice.
You will need a degree of humility in this process. You can never
know exactly what people are thinking and can easily make mistakes,
and so you must not rush to judgments but keep yourself open to
learning more. People are more complex than you imagine. Your goal
is to simply see their point of view better. As you go through this
process, it becomes like a muscle that gets stronger the more you
exercise it.
Cultivating such empathy will have innumerable benefits. We are all
self-absorbed, locked in our own worlds. It is a therapeutic and
liberating experience to be drawn outside ourselves and into the world
of another. It is what attracts us to film and any form of fiction,
entering the minds and perspectives of people so different from
ourselves. Through this practice your whole way of thinking will shift.
You are training yourself to let go of preconceptions, to be alive in the
moment, and to continually adapt your ideas about people. You will
find such fluidity affecting how you attack problems in general—you
will find yourself entertaining other possibilities, taking alternative
perspectives. This is the essence of creative thinking.
Finally, the Laws will alter how you see your own potential,
making you aware of a higher, ideal self within you that you will
want to bring out.
We can say that we humans have two contrary selves within us—a
lower and a higher. The lower tends to be stronger. Its impulses pull us
down into emotional reactions and defensive postures, making us feel
self-righteous and superior to others. It makes us grab for immediate
pleasures and distractions, always taking the path of least resistance. It
induces us to adopt what other people are thinking, losing ourselves in
the group.

We feel the impulses of the higher self when we are drawn out of
ourselves, wanting to connect more deeply with others, to absorb our
minds in our work, to think instead of react, to follow our own path in
life, and to discover what makes us unique. The lower is the more
animal and reactive side of our nature, and one that we easily slip into.
The higher is the more truly human side of our nature, the side that
makes us thoughtful and self-aware. Because the higher impulse is
weaker, connecting to it requires effort and insight.
Bringing out this ideal self within us is what we all really want,
because it is only in developing this side of ourselves that we humans
feel truly fulfilled. The book will help you accomplish this by making
you aware of the potentially positive and active elements contained
within each law.
Knowing our propensity for irrationality, you will learn to become
aware of how your emotions color your thinking (chapter 1), giving you
the ability to subtract them and become truly rational. Knowing how
our attitude in life effects what happens to us, and how naturally our
minds tend to close up out of fear (chapter 8), you will learn how to
forge an attitude that is expansive and fearless. Knowing you have the
propensity to compare yourself with others (chapter 10), you will use
this as a spur to excel in society through your superior work, to admire
those who achieve great things, and to be inspired by their example to
emulate them. You will work this magic on each of the primal qualities,
using your expanded knowledge of human nature to resist the strong
downward pull of your lower nature.
Think of the book in the following way: you are about to become an
apprentice in human nature. You will be developing some skills—how
to observe and measure the character of your fellow humans and see
into your own depths. You will work on bringing out your higher self.
And through practice you will emerge a master of the art, able to
thwart the worst that other people can throw at you and to mold
yourself into a more rational, self-aware, and productive individual.
Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like.
—Anton Chekhov

1

Master Your Emotional Self
The Law of Irrationality

Y

ou like to imagine yourself in control of your fate, consciously
planning the course of your life as best you can. But you are
largely unaware of how deeply your emotions dominate you. They
make you veer toward ideas that soothe your ego. They make you
look for evidence that confirms what you already want to believe.
They make you see what you want to see, depending on your mood,
and this disconnect from reality is the source of the bad decisions and
negative patterns that haunt your life. Rationality is the ability to
counteract these emotional effects, to think instead of react, to open
your mind to what is really happening, as opposed to what you are
feeling. It does not come naturally; it is a power we must cultivate,
but in doing so we realize our greatest potential.
The Inner Athena
One day toward the end of the year 432 BC, the citizens of Athens
received some very disturbing news: representatives from the city-state
of Sparta had arrived in town and presented to the Athenian governing
council new terms of peace. If Athens did not agree to these terms,
then Sparta would declare war. Sparta was Athens’s archenemy and in
many ways its polar opposite. Athens led a league of democratic states
in the region, while Sparta led a confederation of oligarchies, known as
the Peloponnesians. Athens depended on its navy and on its wealth—it
was the preeminent commercial power in the Mediterranean. Sparta
depended on its army. It was a total military state. Up until then, the
two powers had largely avoided a direct war because the consequences
could be devastating—not only could the defeated side lose its

influence in the region, but its whole way of life could be put in
jeopardy—certainly for Athens its democracy and its wealth. Now,
however, war seemed inevitable and a sense of impending doom
quickly settled on the city.
A few days later, the Athenian Assembly met on the Pnyx Hill
overlooking the Acropolis to debate the Spartan ultimatum and decide
what to do. The Assembly was open to all male citizens, and on that
day close to ten thousand of them crowded on the hill to participate in
the debate. The hawks among them were in a state of great agitation—
Athens should seize the initiative and attack Sparta first, they said.
Others reminded them that in a land battle the Spartan forces were
nearly unbeatable. Attacking Sparta in this way would play straight
into their hands. The doves were all in favor of accepting the peace
terms, but as many pointed out, that would only show fear and
embolden the Spartans. It would only give them more time to enlarge
their army. Back and forth went the debate, with emotions getting
heated, people shouting, and no satisfactory solution in sight.
Then toward the end of the afternoon, the crowd suddenly grew
quiet as a familiar figure stepped forward to address the Assembly.
This was Pericles, the elder statesman of Athenian politics, now over
sixty years old. Pericles was beloved, and his opinion would matter
more than anyone’s, but despite the Athenians’ respect for him, they
found him a very peculiar leader—more of a philosopher than a
politician. To those old enough to remember the start of his career, it
was truly surprising how powerful and successful he had become. He
did nothing the usual way.
In the earliest years of their democracy, before Pericles had
appeared on the scene, the Athenians had preferred a certain
personality type in their leaders—men who could give an inspiring,
persuasive speech and had a flair for drama. On the battlefield these
men were risk takers; they often pushed for military campaigns that
they could lead, giving them a chance to gain glory and attention. They
advanced their careers by representing some faction in the Assembly—
landowners, soldiers, aristocrats—and doing everything they could to
further its interests. This led to highly divisive politics. Leaders would
rise and fall in cycles of a few years, but the Athenians were fine with
this; they mistrusted anyone who lasted long in power.

Then Pericles entered public life around 463 BC, and Athenian
politics would never be the same. His first move was the most unusual
of all. Although he came from an illustrious aristocratic family, he
allied himself with the growing lower and middle classes of the city—
farmers, oarsmen in the navy, the craftsmen who were the pride of
Athens. He worked to increase their voice in the Assembly and give
them greater power in the democracy. This was not some small faction
he now led but the majority of Athenian citizens. It would seem
impossible to control such a large, unruly mob of men, with their
varied interests, but he was so fervent in increasing their power that he
slowly gained their trust and backing.
As his influence grew, he started to assert himself in the Assembly
and alter its policies. He argued against expanding Athens’s
democratic empire. He feared the Athenians would overreach and lose
control. He worked to consolidate the empire and strengthen existing
alliances. When it came to war and to serving as a general, he strove to
limit campaigns and to win through maneuvers, with minimal loss of
lives. To many this seemed unheroic, but as these policies took effect,
the city entered a period of unprecedented prosperity. There were no
more needless wars to drain the coffers, and the empire was
functioning more smoothly than ever.
What Pericles did with the growing surplus of money startled and
amazed the citizenry: instead of using it to buy political favors, he
initiated a massive public building project in Athens. He
commissioned temples, theaters, and concert halls, putting all of the
Athenian craftsmen to work. Everywhere one looked, the city was
becoming more sublimely beautiful. He favored a form of architecture
that reflected his personal aesthetics—ordered, highly geometric,
monumental yet soothing to the eye. His greatest commission was that
of the Parthenon, with its enormous forty-foot statue of Athena.
Athena was the guiding spirit of Athens, the goddess of wisdom and
practical intelligence. She represented all of the values Pericles wanted
to promote. Singlehandedly Pericles had transformed the look and
spirit of Athens, and it entered a golden age in all of the arts and
sciences.
What was perhaps the strangest quality of Pericles was his speaking
style—restrained and dignified. He did not go in for the usual flights of
rhetoric. Instead, he worked to convince an audience through airtight

arguments. This would make people listen closely, as they followed the
interesting course of his logic. The style was compelling and calming.
Unlike any of the other leaders, Pericles remained in power year
after year, decade after decade, putting his total stamp on the city in
his quiet, unobtrusive way. He had his enemies. This was inevitable.
He had stayed in power so long that many accused him of being a
secret dictator. He was suspected of being an atheist, a man who
scoffed at all traditions. That would explain why he was so peculiar.
But nobody could argue against the results of his leadership.
And so now, as he began to address the Assembly that afternoon,
his opinion on war with Sparta would carry the most weight, and a
hush came over the crowd as they anxiously waited to hear his
argument.
“Athenians,” he began, “my views are the same as ever: I am against
making any concessions to the Peloponnesians, even though I am
aware that the enthusiastic state of mind in which people are
persuaded to enter upon a war is not retained when it comes to action,
and that people’s minds are altered by the course of events.”
Differences between Athens and Sparta were supposed to be settled
through neutral arbitrators, he reminded them. It would set a
dangerous precedent if they gave in to the Spartans’ unilateral
demands. Where would it end? Yes, a direct land battle with Sparta
would be suicide. What he proposed instead was a completely novel
form of warfare—limited and defensive.
He would bring within the walls of Athens all those living in the
area. Let the Spartans come and try to lure us into fighting, he said; let
them lay waste to our lands. We will not take the bait; we will not fight
them on land. With our access to the sea we will keep the city supplied.
We will use our navy to raid their coastal towns. As time goes on, they
will grow frustrated by the lack of battle. Having to feed and supply
their standing army, they will run out of money. Their allies will bicker
among themselves. The war party within Sparta will be discredited and
a real lasting peace will be agreed upon, all with minimal expenditure
of lives and money on our part.
“I could give you many other reasons,” he concluded, “why you
should feel confident in ultimate victory, if only you will make up your
minds not to add to the empire while the war is in progress, and not to
go out of your way to involve yourselves in new perils. What I fear is

not the enemy’s strategy but our own mistakes.” The novelty of what he
was proposing aroused great debate. Neither hawks nor doves were
satisfied with his plan, but in the end, his reputation for wisdom
carried the day and his strategy was approved. Several months later
the fateful war began.
In the beginning, all did not proceed as Pericles had envisioned. The
Spartans and their allies did not grow frustrated as the war dragged on,
but only bolder. The Athenians were the ones to become discouraged,
seeing their lands destroyed without retaliation. But Pericles believed
his plan could not fail as long as the Athenians remained patient. Then,
in the second year of the war, an unexpected disaster upended
everything: a powerful plague entered the city; with so many people
packed within the walls it spread quickly, killing over one third of the
citizenry and decimating the ranks of the army. Pericles himself caught
the disease, and as he lay dying he witnessed the ultimate nightmare:
all that he had done for Athens over so many decades seemed to
unravel at once, the people descending into group delirium until it was
every man for himself. If he had survived, he almost certainly would
have found a way to calm the Athenians down and broker an
acceptable peace with Sparta, or adjust his defensive strategy, but now
it was too late.
Strangely enough, the Athenians did not mourn for their leader.
They blamed him for the plague and railed at the ineffectiveness of his
strategy. They were not in a mood anymore for patience or restraint.
He had outlived his time, and his ideas were now seen as the tired
reactions of an old man. Their love of Pericles had turned to hate. With
him no longer there, the factions returned with a vengeance. The war
party became popular. The party fed off the people’s growing bitterness
toward the Spartans, who had used the plague to advance their
positions. The hawks promised they would regain the initiative and
crush the Spartans with an offensive strategy. For many Athenians,
such words came as a great relief, a release of pent-up emotions.
As the city slowly recovered from the plague, the Athenians
managed to gain the upper hand, and the Spartans sued for peace.
Wanting to completely defeat their enemy, the Athenians pressed their
advantage, only to find the Spartans recover and turn the tables. Back
and forth it went, year after year. The violence and bitterness on both
sides increased. At one point Athens attacked the island of Melos, a
Spartan ally, and when the Melians surrendered, the Athenians voted

to kill all of their men and sell the women and children into slavery.
Nothing remotely like this had ever happened under Pericles.
Then, after so many years of a war without end, in 415 BC several
Athenian leaders had an interesting idea about how to deliver the fatal
blow. The city-state of Syracuse was the rising power on the island of
Sicily. Syracuse was a critical ally of the Spartans, supplying them with
much-needed resources. If the Athenians, with their great navy, could
launch an expedition and take control of Syracuse, they would gain two
advantages: it would add to their empire, and it would deprive Sparta
of the resources it needed to continue the war. The Assembly voted to
send sixty ships with an appropriate-sized army on board to
accomplish this goal.
One of the commanders assigned to this expedition, Nicias, had
great doubts as to the wisdom of this plan. He feared the Athenians
were underestimating the strength of Syracuse. He laid out all of the
possible negative scenarios; only a much larger expedition could
ensure victory. He wanted to squelch the plan, but his argument had
the opposite effect. If a larger expedition was necessary, then that was
what they would send—one hundred ships and double the number of
soldiers. The Athenians smelled victory in this strategy and nothing
would deter them.
In the ensuing days, Athenians of all ages could be seen in the
streets drawing maps of Sicily, dreaming of the riches that would pour
into Athens and the final humiliation of the Spartans. The day of the
launching of the ships turned into a great holiday and the most aweinspiring spectacle they had ever seen—an enormous armada filling the
harbor as far as the eye could see, the ships beautifully decorated, the
soldiers, glistening in their armor, crowding the decks. It was a
dazzling display of the wealth and power of Athens.
As the months went by, the Athenians desperately sought news of
the expedition. At one point, through the sheer size of the force, it
seemed that Athens had gained the advantage and had laid siege to
Syracuse. But at the last moment, reinforcements arrived from Sparta,
and now the Athenians were on the defensive. Nicias sent off a letter to
the Assembly describing this negative turn of events. He recommended
either giving up and returning to Athens, or the sending of
reinforcements right away. Unwilling to believe in the possibility of
defeat, the Athenians voted to send reinforcements—a second armada

of ships almost as large as the first. In the months after this, the
Athenians’ anxiety reached new heights—for now the stakes had been
doubled and Athens could not afford to lose.
One day a barber in Athens’s port town of Piraeus heard a rumor
from a customer that the Athenian expedition, every ship and almost
every man, had been wiped out in battle. The rumor quickly spread to
Athens. It was hard to believe, but slowly panic set in. A week later the
rumor was confirmed and Athens seemed doomed, drained of money,
ships, and men.
Miraculously, the Athenians managed to hold on. But over the next
few years, severely imbalanced by the losses in Sicily, they staggered
from one reeling blow to another, until finally in 405 BC Athens
suffered its final loss and was forced to agree to the harsh terms of
peace imposed by Sparta. Their years of glory, their great democratic
empire, the Periclean golden age were now and forever over. The man
who had curbed their most dangerous emotions—aggression, greed,
hubris, selfishness—had been gone from the scene for too long, his
wisdom long forgotten.
• • •
Interpretation: As Pericles surveyed the political scene early in his
career, he noticed the following phenomenon: Every Athenian political
figure believed he was rational, had realistic goals, and plans on how to
get there. They all worked hard for their political factions and tried to
increase their power. They led Athenian armies into battle and often
came out ahead. They strove to expand the empire and bring in more
money. And when their political maneuvering suddenly backfired, or
the wars turned out badly, they had excellent reasons for why this had
happened. They could always blame the opposition or, if need be, the
gods. And yet, if all these men were so rational, why did their policies
add up to so much chaos and self-destructiveness? Why was Athens
such a mess and the democracy itself so fragile? Why was there so
much corruption and turbulence? The answer was simple: his fellow
Athenians were not rational at all, merely selfish and shrewd. What
guided their decisions was their base emotions—hunger for power,
attention, and money. And for those purposes they could be very
tactical and clever, but none of their maneuvers led to anything that
lasted or served the overall interests of the democracy.

What consumed Pericles as a thinker and a public figure was how to
get out of this trap, how to be truly rational in an arena dominated by
emotions. The solution he came up with is unique in history and
devastatingly powerful in its results. It should serve as our ideal. In his
conception, the human mind has to worship something, has to have its
attention directed to something it values above all else. For most
people, it is their ego; for some it is their family, their clan, their god,
or their nation. For Pericles it would be nous, the ancient Greek word
for “mind” or “intelligence.” Nous is a force that permeates the
universe, creating meaning and order. The human mind is naturally
attracted to this order; this is the source of our intelligence. For
Pericles, the nous that he worshipped was embodied in the figure of
the goddess Athena.
Athena was literally born from the head of Zeus, her name itself
reflecting this—a combination of “god” (theos) and “mind” (nous). But
Athena came to represent a very particular form of nous—eminently
practical, feminine, and earthy. She is the voice that comes to heroes in
times of need, instilling in them a calm spirit, orienting their minds
toward the perfect idea for victory and success, then giving them the
energy to achieve this. To be visited by Athena was the highest blessing
of them all, and it was her spirit that guided great generals and the best
artists, inventors, and tradesmen. Under her influence, a man or
woman could see the world with perfect clarity and hit upon the action
that was just right for the moment. For Athens, her spirit was invoked
to unify the city, make it prosperous and productive. In essence,
Athena stood for rationality, the greatest gift of the gods to mortals, for
it alone could make a human act with divine wisdom.
To cultivate his inner Athena, Pericles first had to find a way to
master his emotions. Emotions turn us inward, away from nous, away
from reality. We dwell on our anger or our insecurities. If we look out
at the world and try to solve problems, we see things through the lens
of these emotions; they cloud our vision. Pericles trained himself to
never react in the moment, to never make a decision while under the
influence of a strong emotion. Instead, he analyzed his feelings.
Usually when he looked closely at his insecurities or his anger, he saw
that they were not really justified, and they lost their significance
under scrutiny. Sometimes he had to physically get away from the
heated Assembly and retire to his house, where he remained alone for

days on end, calming himself down. Slowly, the voice of Athena would
come to him.
He decided to base all of his political decisions on one thing—what
actually served the greater good of Athens. His goal was to unify the
citizenry through genuine love of democracy and belief in the
superiority of the Athenian way. Having such a standard helped him
avoid the ego trap. It impelled him to work to increase the
participation and power of the lower and middle classes, even though
such a strategy could easily turn against him. It inspired him to limit
wars, even though this meant less personal glory for him. And finally it
led to his greatest decision of all—the public works project that
transformed Athens.
To help himself in this deliberative process, he opened his mind to
as many ideas and options as possible, even to those of his opponents.
He imagined all of the possible consequences of a strategy before
committing to it. With a calm spirit and an open mind, he hit upon
policies that sparked one of the true golden ages in history. One man
was able to infect an entire city with his rational spirit. What happened
to Athens after he departed from the scene speaks for itself. The
Sicilian expedition represented everything he had always opposed—a
decision secretly motivated by the desire to grab more land, blinded to
its potential consequences.
Understand: Like everyone, you think you are rational, but you
are not. Rationality is not a power you are born with but one you
acquire through training and practice. The voice of Athena simply
stands for a higher power that exists within you right now, a potential
you have perhaps felt in moments of calmness and focus, the perfect
idea coming to you after much thinking. You are not connected to this
higher power in the present because your mind is weighed down with
emotions. Like Pericles in the Assembly, you are infected by all of the
drama that others churn up; you are continually reacting to what
people give you, experiencing waves of excitement, insecurity, and
anxiety that make it hard to focus. Your attention is pulled this way
and that, and without the rational standard to guide your decisions,
you never quite reach the goals that you set. At any moment this can
change with a simple decision—to cultivate your inner Athena.
Rationality is then what you will value the most and that which will
serve as your guide.

Your first task is to look at those emotions that are continually
infecting your ideas and decisions. Learn to question yourself: Why
this anger or resentment? Where does this incessant need for attention
come from? Under such scrutiny, your emotions will lose their hold on
you. You will begin to think for yourself instead of reacting to what
others give you. Emotions tend to narrow the mind, making us focus
on one or two ideas that satisfy our immediate desire for power or
attention, ideas that usually backfire. Now, with a calm spirit, you can
entertain a wide range of options and solutions. You will deliberate
longer before acting and reassess your strategies. The voice will
become clearer and clearer. When people besiege you with their
endless dramas and petty emotions, you will resent the distraction and
apply your rationality to think past them. Like an athlete continually
getting stronger through training, your mind will become more flexible
and resilient. Clear and calm, you will see answers and creative
solutions that no one else can envision.
It’s just as though one’s second self were standing beside one; one is
sensible and rational oneself, but the other self is impelled to do something
perfectly senseless, and sometimes very funny; and suddenly you notice
that you are longing to do that amusing thing, goodness knows why; that is,
you want to, as it were, against your will; though you fight against it with all
of your might, you want to.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Raw Youth

Keys to Human Nature
Whenever anything goes wrong in our life, we naturally seek an
explanation. To not find some cause for why our plans went awry, or
why we faced sudden resistance to our ideas, would be deeply
disturbing to us and intensify our pain. But in looking for a cause, our
minds tend to revolve around the same types of explanations: someone
or some group sabotaged me, perhaps out of dislike; large antagonistic
forces out there, such as the government or social conventions,
hindered me; I received bad advice, or information was kept from me.
Finally—if worse comes to worst—it was all bad luck and unfortunate
circumstances.
These explanations generally emphasize our helplessness. “What
could I have done differently? How could I have possibly foreseen the
nasty actions of X against me?” They are also somewhat vague. We
usually can’t point to specific malicious actions of others. We can only
suspect or imagine. These explanations tend to intensify our emotions

—anger, frustration, depression—which we can then wallow in and feel
bad for ourselves. Most significantly, our first reaction is to look
outward for the cause. Yes, we might be responsible for some of what
happened, but for the most part, other people and antagonistic forces
tripped us up. This reaction is deeply ingrained in the human animal.
In ancient times, it might have been the gods or evil spirits who were to
blame. We of the present choose to call them other names.
The truth, however, is very different from this. Certainly there are
individuals and larger forces out there that continually have an effect
on us, and there is much we cannot control in the world. But generally
what causes us to go astray in the first place, what leads to bad
decisions and miscalculations, is our deep-rooted irrationality, the
extent to which our minds are governed by emotion. We cannot see
this. It is our blind spot, and as exhibit A of this blind spot, let’s look at
the crash of 2008, which can serve as a compendium of all varieties of
human irrationality.
In the aftermath of the crash, the following were the most common
explanations in the media for what had happened: trade imbalances
and other factors led to cheap credit in the early 2000s, which led to
excess leverage; it was impossible to place accurate value on the highly
complex derivatives that were being traded, so no one really could
gauge profits and losses; there existed a shrewd and corrupt cabal of
insiders who had incentives to manipulate the system for quick profits;
greedy lenders pushed subprime mortgages on unsuspecting
homeowners; there was too much government regulation; there was
not enough government oversight; computer models and trading
systems ran amok.
These explanations reveal a remarkable denial of a basic reality.
Leading up to the crash of 2008, millions of people made daily
decisions on whether to invest or not invest. At each point of these
transactions, buyers and sellers could have pulled back from the
riskiest forms of investment but decided not to. There were plenty of
people out there warning of a bubble. Only a few years before, the
crash of the giant hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management showed
exactly how a larger crash could and would occur. If people had longer
memories, they could think back to the bubble of 1987; if they read
history, the stock market bubble and crash of 1929. Almost any
potential homeowner can understand the risks of no-money-down
mortgages and lending terms with fast-rising interest rates.

What all of the analysis ignores is the basic irrationality that drove
these millions of buyers and sellers up and down the line. They became
infected with the lure of easy money. This made even the most
educated investor emotional. Studies and experts were pulled in to
bolster ideas that people were already disposed to believe in—such as
the proverbial “this time it’s different” and “housing prices never go
down.” A wave of unbridled optimism swept through masses of people.
Then came the panic and crash and the ugly confrontation with reality.
Instead of coming to terms with the orgy of speculation that had
overwhelmed one and all, making smart people look like idiots, fingers
were pointed at outside forces, anything to deflect the real source of
the madness. This is not something peculiar to the crash of 2008. The
same types of explanations were trotted out after the crashes of 1987
and 1929, the railway mania in the 1840s in England, and the South
Sea bubble of the 1720s, also in England. People spoke of reforming
the system; laws were passed to limit speculation. And none of this
worked.
Bubbles occur because of the intense emotional pull they have on
people, which overwhelms any reasoning powers an individual mind
might possess. They stimulate our natural tendencies toward greed,
easy money, and quick results. It is hard to see other people making
money and not join in. There is no regulatory force on the planet that
can control human nature. And because we do not confront the real
source of the problem, bubbles and crashes keep repeating, and will
keep repeating as long as there are suckers and people who do not read
history. The recurrence of this mirrors the recurrence in our own lives
of the same problems and mistakes, forming negative patterns. It is
hard to learn from experience when we are not looking inward, at the
true causes.
Understand: The first step toward becoming rational is to
understand our fundamental irrationality. There are two factors that
should render this more palatable to our egos: nobody is exempt from
the irresistible effect of emotions on the mind, not even the wisest
among us; and to some extent irrationality is a function of the
structure of our brains and is wired into our very nature by the way we
process emotions. Being irrational is almost beyond our control. To
understand this, we must look at the evolution of emotions themselves.
For millions of years, living organisms depended on finely tuned
instincts for survival. In a split second, a reptile could sense danger in

the environment and respond with an instantaneous flight from the
scene. There was no separation between impulse and action. Then,
slowly, for some animals this sensation evolved into something larger
and longer—a feeling of fear. In the beginning this fear merely
consisted of a high level of arousal with the release of certain
chemicals, alerting the animal to a possible danger. With this arousal
and the attention that came with it, the animal could respond in
several ways instead of just one. It could become more sensitive to the
environment and learn. It stood a better chance of survival because its
options were widened. This sensation of fear would last only a few
seconds or even less, for speed was of the essence.
For social animals, these arousals and feelings took on a deeper and
more important role: they became a critical form of communication.
Vicious sounds or hair standing on end could display anger, warding
off an enemy or signaling a danger; certain postures or smells revealed
sexual desire and readiness; postures and gestures signaled the desire
to play; certain calls from the young revealed deep anxiety and the
need for the mother to return. With primates, this became ever more
elaborate and complex. It has been shown that chimpanzees can feel
envy and the desire for vengeance, among other emotions. This
evolution took place over the course of hundreds of millions of years.
Much more recently, cognitive powers developed in animals and
humans, culminating in the invention of language and abstract
thinking.
As many neuroscientists have affirmed, this evolution has led to the
higher mammalian brain being composed of three parts. The oldest is
the reptilian part of the brain, which controls all automatic responses
that regulate the body. This is the instinctive part. Above that is the old
mammalian or limbic brain, governing feeling and emotion. And on
top of that has evolved the neocortex, the part that controls cognition
and, for humans, language.
Emotions originate as physical arousal designed to capture our
attention and cause us to take notice of something around us. They
begin as chemical reactions and sensations that we must then translate
into words to try to understand. But because they are processed in a
different part of the brain from language and thinking, this translation
is often slippery and inaccurate. For instance, we feel anger at person
X, whereas in fact the true source of this may be envy; below the level
of conscious awareness we feel inferior in relation to X and want

something he or she has. But envy is not a feeling that we are ever
comfortable with, and so often we translate it as something more
palatable—anger, dislike, resentment. Or let us say one day we are
feeling a mood of frustration and impatience; person Y crosses our
path at the wrong moment and we lash out, unaware that this anger is
prompted by a different mood and out of proportion to Y’s actions. Or
let us say that we are truly angry at person Z. But the anger is sitting
inside of us, caused by someone in our past who hurt us deeply,
perhaps a parent. We direct the anger at Z because they remind us of
this other person.
In other words, we do not have conscious access to the origins of
our emotions and the moods they generate. Once we feel them, all we
can do is try to interpret the emotion, translate it into language. But
more often than not we get this wrong. We latch onto interpretations
that are simple and that suit us. Or we remain baffled. We don’t know
why we feel depressed, for example. This unconscious aspect of
emotions also means that it is very hard for us to learn from them, to
stop or prevent compulsive behavior. Children who felt abandoned by
their parents will tend to create patterns of abandonment in later life,
without seeing the reason. (See Trigger Points from Early Childhood,
on this page.)
The communicating function of emotions, a critical factor for social
animals, also becomes somewhat tricky for us. We communicate anger
when it is something else we are feeling, or about someone else, but the
other person cannot see this and so they react as if personally attacked,
which can create cascading misinterpretations.
Emotions evolved for a different reason than cognition. These two
forms of relating to the world are not connected seamlessly in our
brains. For animals, unburdened by the need to translate physical
sensations into abstract language, emotions function smoothly, as they
were meant to. For us, the split between our emotions and our
cognition is a source of constant internal friction, comprising a second
Emotional Self within us that operates beyond our will. Animals feel
fear for a brief time, then it is gone. We dwell on our fears, intensifying
them and making them last well past the moment of danger, even to
the point of feeling constant anxiety.
Many might be tempted to imagine that we have somehow tamed
this Emotional Self through all of our intellectual and technological

progress. After all, we don’t appear as violent or passionate or
superstitious as our ancestors; but this is an illusion. Progress and
technology have not rewired us; they have merely altered the forms of
our emotions and the type of irrationality that comes with them. For
instance, new forms of media have enhanced the age-old ability of
politicians and others to play on our emotions, in ever subtler and
more sophisticated ways. Advertisers bombard us with highly effective
subliminal messages. Our continual connection to social media makes
us prone to new forms of viral emotional effects. These are not media
designed for calm reflection. With their constant presence, we have
less and less mental space to step back and think. We are as besieged
with emotions and needless drama as the Athenians in the Assembly,
because human nature has not changed.
Clearly the words rational and irrational can be quite loaded.
People are always labeling those who disagree with them “irrational.”
What we need is a simple definition that can be applied as a way of
judging, as accurately as possible, the difference between the two. The
following shall serve as our barometer: We constantly feel emotions,
and they continually infect our thinking, making us veer toward
thoughts that please us and soothe our egos. It is impossible to not
have our inclinations and feelings somehow involved in what we think.
Rational people are aware of this and through introspection and effort
are able, to some extent, to subtract emotions from their thinking and
counteract their effect. Irrational people have no such awareness. They
rush into action without carefully considering the ramifications and
consequences.
We can see the difference in the decisions and actions that people
take and the results that ensue. Rational people demonstrate over time
that they are able to finish a project, to realize their goals, to work
effectively with a team, and to create something that lasts. Irrational
people reveal in their lives negative patterns—mistakes that keep
repeating, unnecessary conflicts that follow them wherever they go,
dreams and projects that are never realized, anger and desires for
change that are never translated into concrete action. They are
emotional and reactive and unaware of this. Everyone is capable of
irrational decisions, some of which are caused by circumstances
beyond our control. And even the most emotional types can hit upon
great ideas or succeed momentarily through boldness. So it is
important to judge over time whether a person is rational or irrational.

Can they sustain success and hit upon several good strategies? Can
they adjust and learn from failures?
We can also see the difference between a rational and irrational
person in particular situations, when it comes to calculating long-term
effects and seeing what truly matters. For instance: In a divorce
proceeding with child custody issues, rational people will manage to let
go of their bitterness and prejudice and reason what is in the best
overall long-term interests of the child. Irrational people will become
consumed with a power struggle against the spouse, will let
resentments and desires for vengeance secretly guide their decisions.
This will lead to a protracted battle and a damaged child.
When it comes to hiring an assistant or partner, rational people will
use competence as their barometer—can this person do the job? An
irrational person will easily fall under the spell of those who are
charming, who know how to feed their insecurities, or who pose little
challenge or threat, and will hire them without realizing the reasons.
This will lead to mistakes and inefficiencies, for which the irrational
person will blame others. When it comes to career decisions, rational
people will look for positions that fit their long-term goals. Irrational
types will decide based on how much money they can immediately
make, what they feel they deserve in life (sometimes very little), how
much they can slack off on the job, or how much attention the position
might bring them. This will lead to career dead ends.
In all cases, the degree of awareness represents the difference.
Rational people can readily admit their own irrational tendencies and
the need to be vigilant. On the other hand, irrational people become
highly emotional when challenged about the emotional roots of their
decisions. They are incapable of introspection and learning. Their
mistakes make them increasingly defensive.
It is important to understand that rationality is not some means of
transcending emotion. Pericles himself valued bold and adventurous
action. He loved the spirit of Athena and the inspiration she brought.
He wanted Athenians to feel love for their city and empathy for their
fellow citizens. What he envisioned was a state of balance—a clear
understanding of why we feel the way we do, conscious of our impulses
so that we can think without being secretly compelled by our emotions.
Pericles wanted the energy that comes from impulses and emotions to
serve our thinking self. That was his vision of rationality, and our ideal.

Fortunately, to acquire rationality is not complicated. It simply
requires knowing and working through a three-step process. First, we
must become aware of what we shall call low-grade irrationality. This
is a function of the continual moods and feelings that we experience in
life, below the level of consciousness. When we plan or make decisions,
we are not aware of how deeply these moods and feelings skew the
thinking process. They create in our thinking pronounced biases that
are so deeply ingrained in us that we see evidence of them in all
cultures and all periods of history. These biases, by distorting reality,
lead to the mistakes and ineffective decisions that plague our lives.
Being aware of them, we can begin to counterbalance their effects.
Second, we must understand the nature of what we shall call highgrade irrationality. This occurs when our emotions become inflamed,
generally because of certain pressures. As we think about our anger,
excitement, resentment, or suspicion, it intensifies into a reactive state
—everything we see or hear is interpreted through the lens of this
emotion. We become more sensitive and more prone to other
emotional reactions. Impatience and resentment can bleed into anger
and deep distrust. These reactive states are what lead people to
violence, to manic obsessions, to uncontrollable greed, or to desires to
control another person. This form of irrationality is the source of more
acute problems—crises, conflicts, and disastrous decisions.
Understanding how this type of irrationality operates can allow us to
recognize the reactive state as it is happening and pull back before we
do something we regret.
Third, we need to enact certain strategies and exercises that will
strengthen the thinking part of the brain and give it more power in the
eternal struggle with our emotions.
The following three steps will help you begin on the path toward
rationality. It would be wise to incorporate all three into your study
and practice in human nature.
Step One: Recognize the Biases
Emotions are continually affecting our thought processes and
decisions, below the level of our awareness. And the most common
emotion of them all is the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of
pain. Our thoughts almost inevitably revolve around this desire; we

simply recoil from entertaining ideas that are unpleasant or painful to
us. We imagine we are looking for the truth, or being realistic, when in
fact we are holding on to ideas that bring a release from tension and
soothe our egos, make us feel superior. This pleasure principle in
thinking is the source of all of our mental biases. If you believe that
you are somehow immune to any of the following biases, it is simply an
example of the pleasure principle in action. Instead, it is best to search
and see how they continually operate inside you, as well as learn how
to identify such irrationality in others.

Confirmation Bias
I look at the evidence and arrive at my decisions through more or less
rational processes.
To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally,
we go in search of evidence to support our view. What could be more
objective or scientific? But because of the pleasure principle and its
unconscious influence, we manage to find the evidence that confirms
what we want to believe. This is known as confirmation bias.
We can see this at work in people’s plans, particularly those with
high stakes. A plan is designed to lead to a positive, desired objective.
If people considered the possible negative and positive consequences
equally, they might find it hard to take any action. Inevitably they veer
toward information that confirms the desired positive result, the rosy
scenario, without realizing it. We also see this at work when people are
supposedly asking for advice. This is the bane of most consultants. In
the end, people want to hear their own ideas and preferences
confirmed by an expert opinion. They will interpret what you say in
light of what they want to hear; and if your advice runs counter to their
desires, they will find some way to dismiss your opinion, your so-called
expertise. The more powerful the person, the more they are subject to
this form of the confirmation bias.
When investigating confirmation bias in the world, take a look at
theories that seem a little too good to be true. Statistics and studies are
trotted out to prove them; these are not very difficult to find, once you
are convinced of the rightness of your argument. On the internet, it is
easy to find studies that support both sides of an argument. In general,
you should never accept the validity of people’s ideas because they
have supplied “evidence.” Instead, examine the evidence yourself in

the cold light of day, with as much skepticism as you can muster. Your
first impulse should always be to find the evidence that disconfirms
your most cherished beliefs and those of others. That is true science.

Conviction Bias
I believe in this idea so strongly. It must be true.
We hold on to an idea that is secretly pleasing to us, but deep inside
we might have some doubts as to its truth, and so we go an extra mile
to convince ourselves—to believe in it with great vehemence and to
loudly contradict anyone who challenges us. How can our idea not be
true if it brings out in us such energy to defend it, we tell ourselves?
This bias is revealed even more clearly in our relationship to leaders—if
they express an opinion with heated words and gestures, colorful
metaphors and entertaining anecdotes, and a deep well of conviction,
it must mean they have examined the idea carefully to express it with
such certainty. Those, on the other hand, who express nuances, whose
tone is more hesitant, reveal weakness and self-doubt. They are
probably lying, or so we think. This bias makes us susceptible to
salesmen and demagogues who display conviction as a way to convince
and deceive. They know that people are hungry for entertainment, so
they cloak their half-truths with dramatic effects.

Appearance Bias
I understand the people I deal with; I see them just as they are.
We see people not as they are, but as they appear to us. And these
appearances are usually misleading. First, people have trained
themselves in social situations to present the front that is appropriate
and that will be judged positively. They seem to be in favor of the
noblest causes, always presenting themselves as hardworking and
conscientious. We take these masks for reality. Second, we are prone to
fall for the halo effect—when we see certain negative or positive
qualities in a person (social awkwardness, intelligence), other positive
or negative qualities are implied that fit with this. People who are
good-looking generally seem more trustworthy, particularly
politicians. If a person is successful, we imagine they are probably also
ethical, conscientious, and deserving of their good fortune. This
obscures the fact that many people who have gotten ahead have done

so through less-than-moral actions, which they cleverly disguise from
view.

The Group Bias
My ideas are my own. I do not listen to the group. I am not a
conformist.
We are social animals by nature. The feeling of isolation, of
difference from the group, is depressing and terrifying. We experience
tremendous relief when we find others who think the same way we do.
In fact, we are motivated to take up ideas and opinions because they
bring us this relief. We are unaware of this pull and so imagine we have
come to certain ideas completely on our own. Look at people who
support one party or the other, one ideology—a noticeable orthodoxy
or correctness prevails, without anyone saying anything or applying
overt pressure. If someone is on the right or the left, their opinions will
almost always follow the same direction on dozens of issues, as if by
magic, and yet few would ever admit this influence on their thought
patterns.

The Blame Bias
I learn from my experience and mistakes.
Mistakes and failures elicit the need to explain. We want to learn
the lesson and not repeat the experience. But in truth, we do not like to
look too closely at what we did; our introspection is limited. Our
natural response is to blame others, circumstances, or a momentary
lapse of judgment. The reason for this bias is that it is often too painful
to look at our mistakes. It calls into question our feelings of
superiority. It pokes at our ego. We go through the motions,
pretending to reflect on what we did. But with the passage of time, the
pleasure principle rises and we forget what small part in the mistake
we ascribed to ourselves. Desire and emotion will blind us yet again,
and we will repeat exactly the same mistake and go through the same
mild recriminating process, followed by forgetfulness, until we die. If
people truly learned from their experience, we would find few mistakes
in the world and career paths that ascend ever upward.

Superiority Bias

I’m different. I’m more rational than others, more ethical as well.
Few would say this to people in conversation. It sounds arrogant.
But in numerous opinion polls and studies, when asked to compare
themselves with others, people generally express a variation of this. It’s
the equivalent of an optical illusion—we cannot seem to see our faults
and irrationalities, only those of others. So, for instance, we’ll easily
believe that those in the other political party do not come to their
opinions based on rational principles, but those on our side have done
so. On the ethical front, few of us will ever admit that we have resorted
to deception or manipulation in our work or have been clever and
strategic in our career advancement. Everything we’ve got, or so we
think, comes from natural talent and hard work. But with other people,
we are quick to ascribe to them all kinds of Machiavellian tactics. This
allows us to justify whatever we do, no matter the results.
We feel a tremendous pull to imagine ourselves as rational, decent,
and ethical. These are qualities highly promoted in the culture. To
show signs otherwise is to risk great disapproval. If all of this were true
—if people were rational and morally superior—the world would be
suffused with goodness and peace. We know, however, the reality, and
so some people, perhaps all of us, are merely deceiving ourselves.
Rationality and ethical qualities must be achieved through awareness
and effort. They do not come naturally. They come through a
maturation process.
Step Two: Beware the Inflaming Factors
Low-grade emotions continually affect our thinking, and they originate
from our own impulses—for instance, the desire for pleasing and
comforting thoughts. High-grade emotion, however, comes at certain
moments, reaches an explosive pitch, and is generally sparked by
something external—a person who gets under our skin, or particular
circumstances. The level of arousal is higher and our attention is
captured completely. The more we think about the emotion, the
stronger it gets, which makes us focus even more on it, and so on and
so forth. Our minds tunnel into the emotion, and everything reminds
us of our anger or excitement. We become reactive. Because we are
unable to bear the tension this brings, high-grade emotion usually
culminates in some rash action with disastrous consequences. In the

middle of such an attack we feel possessed, as if a second, limbic self
has taken over.
It is best to be aware of these factors so that you can stop the mind
from tunneling and prevent the releasing action that you will always
come to regret. You should also be aware of high-grade irrationality in
others, to either get out of their way or help bring them back to reality.

Trigger Points from Early Childhood
In early childhood we were at our most sensitive and vulnerable. Our
relationship to our parents had a much greater impact on us the
further back in time we go. The same could be said for any early
powerful experience. These vulnerabilities and wounds remain buried
deep within our minds. Sometimes we try to repress the memory of
these influences, if they happen to be negative—great fears or
humiliations. Sometimes, however, they are associated with positive
emotions, experiences of love and attention that we continually want to
relive. Later in life, a person or event will trigger a memory of this
positive or negative experience, and with it a release of powerful
chemicals or hormones associated with the memory.
Take, for example, a young man who had a distant, narcissistic
mother. As an infant or child, he experienced her coldness as
abandonment, and to be abandoned must mean he was somehow
unworthy of her love. Or similarly, a new sibling on the scene caused
his mother to give him much less attention, which he equally
experienced as abandonment. Later in life, in a relationship, a woman
might hint at disapproval of some trait or action of his, all of which is
part of a healthy relationship. This will hit a trigger point—she is
noticing his flaws, which, he imagines, precedes her abandonment of
him. He feels a powerful rush of emotion, a sense of imminent
betrayal. He does not see the source of this; it is beyond his control. He
overreacts, accuses, withdraws, all of which leads to the very thing he
feared—abandonment. His reaction was to some reflection in his mind,
not to the reality. This is the height of irrationality.
The way to recognize this in yourself and in others is by noticing
behavior that is suddenly childish in its intensity and seemingly out of
character. This could center on any key emotion. It could be fear—of
losing control, of failure. In this case, we react by withdrawing from
the situation and the presence of others, like a child curling up into a

ball. A sudden illness, brought on by the intense fear, will conveniently
cause us to have to leave the scene. It could be love—desperately
searching to re-create a close parental or sibling relationship in the
present, triggered by someone who vaguely reminds us of the lost
paradise. It could be extreme mistrust, originating from an authority
figure in early childhood who disappointed or betrayed us, generally
the father. This often triggers a sudden rebellious attitude.
The great danger here is that in misreading the present and reacting
to something in the past, we create conflict, disappointments, and
mistrust that only strengthen the wound. In some ways, we are
programmed to repeat the early experience in the present. Our only
defense is awareness as it is happening. We can recognize a trigger
point by the experience of emotions that are unusually primal, more
uncontrollable than normal. They trigger tears, deep depression, or
excessive hope. People under the spell of these emotions will often
have a very different tone of voice and body language, as if they were
physically reliving a moment from early life.
In the midst of such an attack, we must struggle to detach ourselves
and contemplate the possible source—the wound in early childhood—
and the patterns it has locked us into. This deep understanding of
ourselves and our vulnerabilities is a key step toward becoming
rational.

Sudden Gains or Losses
Sudden success or winnings can be very dangerous. Neurologically,
chemicals are released in the brain that give a powerful jolt of arousal
and energy, leading to the desire to repeat this experience. It can be the
start of any kind of addiction and manic behavior. Also, when gains
come quickly we tend to lose sight of the basic wisdom that true
success, to really last, must come through hard work. We do not take
into account the role that luck plays in such sudden gains. We try again
and again to recapture that high from winning so much money or
attention. We acquire feelings of grandiosity. We become especially
resistant to anyone who tries to warn us—they don’t understand, we
tell ourselves. Because this cannot be sustained, we experience an
inevitable fall, which is all the more painful, leading to the depression
part of the cycle. Although gamblers are the most prone to this, it
equally applies to businesspeople during bubbles and to people who
gain sudden attention from the public.

Unexpected losses or a string of losses equally create irrational
reactions. We imagine we are cursed with bad luck and that this will go
on indefinitely. We become fearful and hesitant, which will often lead
to more mistakes or failures. In sports, this can induce what is known
as choking, as previous losses and misses weigh on the mind and
tighten it up.
The solution here is simple: whenever you experience unusual gains
or losses, that is precisely the time to step back and counterbalance
them with some necessary pessimism or optimism. Be extra wary of
sudden success and attention—they are not built on anything that lasts
and they have an addictive pull. And the fall is always painful.

Rising Pressure
The people around you generally appear sane and in control of their
lives. But put any of them in stressful circumstances, with the pressure
rising, and you will see a different reality. The cool mask of self-control
comes off. They suddenly lash out in anger, reveal a paranoid streak,
and become hypersensitive and often petty. Under stress or any threat,
the most primitive parts of the brain are aroused and engaged,
overwhelming people’s reasoning powers. In fact, stress or tension can
reveal flaws in people that they have carefully concealed from view. It
is often wise to observe people in such moments, precisely as a way to
judge their true character.
Whenever you notice rising pressure and stress levels in your life,
you must watch yourself carefully. Monitor any signs of unusual
brittleness or sensitivity, sudden suspicions, fears disproportionate to
the circumstances. Observe with as much detachment as possible,
finding time and space to be alone. You need perspective. Never
imagine that you are someone who can withstand rising stress without
emotional leakage. It is not possible. But through self-awareness and
reflection you can prevent yourself from making decisions you will
come to regret.

Inflaming Individuals
There are people in the world who by their nature tend to trigger
powerful emotions in almost everyone they encounter. These emotions
range among the extremes of love, hatred, confidence, and mistrust.
Some examples in history would include King David in the Bible,

Alcibiades in ancient Athens, Julius Caesar in ancient Rome, Georges
Danton during the French Revolution, and Bill Clinton. These types
have a degree of charisma—they have the ability to express eloquently
emotions they are feeling, which inevitably stirs parallel emotions in
others. But some of them can also be quite narcissistic; they project
their internal drama and troubles outward, catching other people up in
the turmoil they create. This leads to profound feelings of attraction in
some and repulsion in others.
It is best to recognize these inflamers by how they affect others, not
just yourself. No one can remain indifferent to them. People find
themselves incapable of reasoning or maintaining any distance in their
presence. They make you think of them continually when not in their
presence. They have an obsessive quality, and they can lead you to
extreme actions as a devoted follower or as an inveterate enemy. On
either end of the spectrum—attraction or repulsion—you will tend to
be irrational and you will desperately need to distance yourself. A good
strategy to utilize is to see through the front they project. They
inevitably try to cast a larger-than-life image, a mythic, intimidating
quality; but in fact they are all too human, full of the same insecurities
and weaknesses we all possess. Try to recognize these very human
traits and demythologize them.

The Group Effect
This is the high-grade variety of the group bias. When we are in a
group of a large enough size, we become different. Notice yourself and
others at a sporting event, a concert, a religious or political gathering.
It is impossible to not feel yourself caught up in the collective
emotions. Your heart beats faster. Tears of joy or sadness come more
readily. Being in a group does not stimulate independent reasoning but
rather the intense desire to belong. This can happen equally in a work
environment, particularly if the leader plays on people’s emotions to
spur competitive, aggressive desires, or creates an us-versus-them
dynamic. The group effect does not necessarily require the presence of
others. It can occur virally, as some opinion spreads over social media
and infects us with the desire to share the opinion—generally of a
strong variety, such as outrage.
There is an exhilarating, positive aspect to the stimulation of group
emotions. It is how we can be rallied to do something for the collective
good. But if you notice the appeal is to more diabolical emotions, such

as hatred of the other, rabid patriotism, aggression, or sweeping
worldviews, you need to inoculate yourself and see through the
powerful pull as it works on you. It is often best to avoid the group
setting if possible in order to maintain your reasoning powers, or to
enter such moments with maximum skepticism.
Be aware of demagogues who exploit the group effect and stimulate
outbreaks of irrationality. They inevitably resort to certain devices. In a
group setting, they begin by warming up the crowd, talking about ideas
and values that everyone shares, creating a pleasant feeling of
agreement. They rely on vague but loaded words full of emotive quality
such as justice or truth or patriotism. They talk of abstract, noble goals
rather than the solving of specific problems with concrete action.
Demagogues in politics or the media try to stir a continual sense of
panic, urgency, and outrage. They must keep the emotional levels high.
Your defense is simple: Consider your reasoning powers, your ability to
think for yourself, your most precious possession. Resent any kind of
intrusion upon your independent mind by others. When you feel you
are in the presence of a demagogue, become doubly wary and
analytical.

—
A final word on the irrational in human nature: do not imagine that the
more extreme types of irrationality have somehow been overcome
through progress and enlightenment. Throughout history we witness
continual cycles of rising and falling levels of the irrational. The great
golden age of Pericles, with its philosophers and its first stirrings of the
scientific spirit, was followed by an age of superstition, cults, and
intolerance. This same phenomenon happened after the Italian
Renaissance. That this cycle is bound to recur again and again is part
of human nature.
The irrational simply changes its look and its fashions. We may no
longer have literal witch hunts, but in the twentieth century, not so
very long ago, we witnessed the show trials of Stalin, the McCarthy
hearings in the U.S. Senate, and the mass persecutions during the
Chinese Cultural Revolution. Various cults are continually being
generated, including cults of personality and the fetishizing of
celebrities. Technology now inspires religious fervor. People have a

desperate need to believe in something and they will find it anywhere.
Polls have revealed that increasing numbers of people believe in
ghosts, spirits, and angels, in the twenty-first century.
As long as there are humans, the irrational will find its voices and
means of spreading. Rationality is something to be acquired by
individuals, not by mass movements or technological progress. Feeling
superior and beyond it is a sure sign that the irrational is at work.
Step Three: Strategies Toward Bringing Out the Rational
Self
Despite our pronounced irrational tendencies, two factors should give
us all hope. First and foremost is the existence throughout history and
in all cultures of people of high rationality, the types who have made
progress possible. They serve as ideals for all of us to aim for. These
include Pericles, the ruler Aśoka of ancient India, Marcus Aurelius of
ancient Rome, Marguerite de Valois in medieval France, Leonardo da
Vinci, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, the writer Anton Chekhov,
the anthropologist Margaret Mead, and the businessman Warren
Buffett, to name but a few. All of these types share certain qualities—a
realistic appraisal of themselves and their weaknesses; a devotion to
truth and reality; a tolerant attitude toward people; and the ability to
reach goals that they have set.
The second factor is that almost all of us at some point in our lives
have experienced moments of greater rationality. This often comes
with what we shall call the maker’s mind-set. We have a project to get
done, perhaps with a deadline. The only emotion we can afford is
excitement and energy. Other emotions simply make it impossible to
concentrate. Because we have to get results, we become exceptionally
practical. We focus on the work—our mind calm, our ego not
intruding. If people try to interrupt or infect us with emotions, we
resent it. These moments—as fleeting as a few weeks or hours—reveal
the rational self that is waiting to come out. It just requires some
awareness and some practice.
The following strategies are designed to help you bring out that
inner Pericles or Athena:
Know yourself thoroughly. The Emotional Self thrives on
ignorance. The moment you are aware of how it operates and

dominates you is the moment it loses its hold on you and can be
tamed. Therefore, your first step toward the rational is always inward.
You want to catch that Emotional Self in action. For this purpose, you
must reflect on how you operate under stress. What particular
weaknesses come out in such moments—the desire to please, to bully
or control, deep levels of mistrust? Look at your decisions, especially
those that have been ineffective—can you see a pattern, an underlying
insecurity that impels them? Examine your strengths, what makes you
different from other people. This will help you decide upon goals that
mesh with your long-term interests and that are aligned with your
skills. By knowing and valuing what marks you as different, you will
also be able to resist the pull of the group bias and effect.
Examine your emotions to their roots. You are angry. Let the
feeling settle from within, and think about it. Was it triggered by
something seemingly trivial or petty? That is a sure sign that
something or someone else is behind it. Perhaps a more uncomfortable
emotion is at the source—such as envy or paranoia. You need to look at
this square in the eye. Dig below any trigger points to see where they
started. For these purposes, it might be wise to use a journal in which
you record your self-assessments with ruthless objectivity. Your
greatest danger here is your ego and how it makes you unconsciously
maintain illusions about yourself. These may be comforting in the
moment, but in the long run they make you defensive and unable to
learn or progress. Find a neutral position from which you can observe
your actions, with a bit of detachment and even humor. Soon all of this
will become second nature, and when the Emotional Self suddenly
rears its head in some situation, you will see it as it happens and be
able to step back and find that neutral position.
Increase your reaction time. This power comes through
practice and repetition. When some event or interaction requires a
response, you must train yourself to step back. This could mean
physically removing yourself to a place where you can be alone and not
feel any pressure to respond. Or it could mean writing that angry email
but not sending it. You sleep on it for a day or two. You do not make
phone calls or communicate while feeling some sudden emotion,
particularly resentment. If you find yourself rushing to commit to
people, to hire or be hired by them, step back and give it a day. Cool
the emotions down. The longer you can take the better, because
perspective comes with time. Consider this like resistance training—

the longer you can resist reacting, the more mental space you have for
actual reflection, and the stronger your mind will become.
Accept people as facts. Interactions with people are the major
source of emotional turmoil, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The
problem is that we are continually judging people, wishing they were
something that they are not. We want to change them. We want them
to think and act a certain way, most often the way we think and act.
And because this is not possible, because everyone is different, we are
continually frustrated and upset. Instead, see other people as
phenomena, as neutral as comets or plants. They simply exist. They
come in all varieties, making life rich and interesting. Work with what
they give you, instead of resisting and trying to change them. Make
understanding people a fun game, the solving of puzzles. It is all part of
the human comedy. Yes, people are irrational, but so are you. Make
your acceptance of human nature as radical as possible. This will calm
you down and help you observe people more dispassionately,
understanding them on a deeper level. You will stop projecting your
own emotions on to them. All of this will give you more balance and
calmness, more mental space for thinking.
It is certainly difficult to do this with the nightmare types who cross
our path—the raging narcissists, the passive aggressors, and other
inflamers. They remain a continual test to our rationality. Look at the
Russian writer Anton Chekhov, one of the most fiercely rational people
who ever lived, as the model for this. His family was large and poor,
and his father, an alcoholic, mercilessly beat all of the children,
including young Chekhov. Chekhov became a doctor and took up
writing as a side career. He applied his training as a doctor to the
human animal, his goal to understand what makes us so irrational, so
unhappy, and so dangerous. In his stories and plays, he found it
immensely therapeutic to get inside his characters and make sense of
even the worst types. In this way, he could forgive anybody, even his
father. His approach in these cases was to imagine that each person, no
matter how twisted, has a reason for what they’ve become, a logic that
makes sense to them. In their own way, they are striving for
fulfillment, but irrationally. By stepping back and imagining their story
from the inside, Chekhov demythologized the brutes and aggressors;
he cut them down to human size. They no longer elicited hatred but
rather pity. You must think more like a writer in approaching the
people you deal with, even the worst sorts.

Find the optimal balance of thinking and emotion. We
cannot divorce emotions from thinking. The two are completely
intertwined. But there is inevitably a dominant factor, some people
more clearly governed by emotions than others. What we are looking
for is the proper ratio and balance, the one that leads to the most
effective action. The ancient Greeks had an appropriate metaphor for
this: the rider and the horse.
The horse is our emotional nature continually impelling us to move.
This horse has tremendous energy and power, but without a rider it
cannot be guided; it is wild, subject to predators, and continually
heading into trouble. The rider is our thinking self. Through training
and practice, it holds the reins and guides the horse, transforming this
powerful animal energy into something