I was probably seventeen when I read the book, and have all but forgotten most of those laws, but I remembered many of the stories. Greene in the book carefully puts together an array of interesting stories of famous leaders, generals, businessman that makes the book enjoyable to read whether or not one agrees with his laws.

My favourite chapter was "Enter action with boldness" which had in it a story of a poor Korean man named Huh Saeng. http://wisdomportal.com/Enlightenment/Huh-Saeng.html

And I would add that "doing good work" gives you the confidence to "enter action with boldness".

Clearly, anyone who practices these rules religiously will end up living a very lonely, paranoid life.

However, as a nerd that doesn't understand social dynamics very well, I've found this book to be of immense defensive value -- I started seeing how people utilized these rules (either consciously or subconsciously) around me, and have been able to avoid being influenced / controlled by them.