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Comment by candeira | Hacker News Reader

Huge red flag also for Robert Greene.

Why? I love his books.

I've read a couple; they come across as engagingly written "just so" stories, lacking research or evidence. Fun to read and fun to think about, but that's all - a bit of fun.

Which is by no means a bad thing; there's a lot to be said for reading a fun book and thinking about it.

I don't see how that's differnt from Malcolm Gladwell's books. Yes when we read them the ideas feal on the border of speculation, but they are interesting, they help us stretch our minds and see things from differnt perspective. Even when we disagree with some conclusions, this help us define our own understanding on the prbolems discussed.

BTW some of Paul Graham's essays have the similar impact on me, sometimes I don't agree with his way of thinking, but still find them very insightful.

It isn't different to Malcolm Gladwell's books.

And Greene's 48 Laws of Power is practically a manual of sociopathy.

> And Greene's 48 Laws of Power is practically a manual of sociopathy.

Exactly this.

If this is supposed to be negative criticism.

It is only negative if you choose to do negative things with it. It gives plenty of insights on human nature. If you choose to do bad things it is not because of this book.

And exactly because of that it makes the book useful to read, so that you can notice and identify sociopathic techniques, and decide how to deal with them. I feel the same way about certain sales books I've read, being conscious of the techniques takes away much of the power those techniques have, and allows you to make rational decisions without being swayed.

Why?

As https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21751079 said:

> And Greene's 48 Laws of Power is practically a manual of sociopathy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com