023 - Exploring The 48 Laws Of Power - Concentrate Your Forces - a podcast by Jon & Dre

LAW 23: Concentrate Your Forces

We’re almost at the halfway point, so we’re aiming to do a review at the halfway mark, considering what we’ve done and reviewed so far. We hope to integrate some stories from our listeners and have a look forward to what’s coming up next. 

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FULL NOTES:http://voicesinthedark.world/2016/11/08/concentrate-your…power-episode-23/

Is it better to focus your force and energies to keep them concentrated at their strongest point? For once both Jon and Dre feel uneasy about one of the laws. Discussing the merits and pitfalls of focusing heavily on one task leaves Jon and Dre coming to some realisations about their own projects as they question whether this has been a successful technique for them.

We also debate the impact of modern life on the ability to focus your attention, with both financial and time constraints, and a lack of modern patrons of the arts.

Could it be that we only been hearing about the best of the rich? And there could be people better than Isaac Newton and Louis Pasteur, who just don’t have the financial security to refine a singular interest?

Dre talks delegating to his brother, Jon picks on Stephen Fry and together they ponder the irony that a section primarily about concentration of forces seems to be the most unfocused and confusing so far.

This episode includes:

• Is being dedicated to one aspect of life suited to modern times, when people are constantly being taught to multitask and have multiple skill sets.
• Is the law more suited to people with a rich background who don’t have to take a dead-end job just to pay the bills?
• Could Universal Basic Income be used to empower the masses and allow them the freedom to concentrate their forces?
• Is it a reasonable expectation to concentrate your forces when most people in modern life are stuck doing a job we don’t want to be able to afford doing things we want which already splits us between two things.
• The law of diminishing returns and the impact of that on being hyper-focused on one task.
• The difference between diversification and overstretching.
• Internal flexibility, and why sometimes eating icecream and Netflix can be helpful.
• The use of psychedelics in helping to process experiences and feelings.
• Pavlovian response and habit.
• Robert Greene’s conflicting ideas about insular ideals and views.
• The additive feel good factor of a steady drip of Push notifications

Mentioned in the Episode

• Tim Ferriss, batching and the 80/20 Principle
• http://highexistence.com
• Isaiah Berlin’s philosophical parable The Hedgehog and the Fox
• Robert Greene’s book Mastery
• Cesare Borgia and the diminution of his power following the death of his father 
• A quote by Casanova “I have always believed, he reflects with a certain delight, that when a man takes it into his head to see some project through and attends to it exclusively, he will inevitably be successful, whatever the difficulties”

 

Join us as we continue our 48 Laws of Power review, exploring Robert Greene’s provocative and compelling book, in which he lays bare the history, practice, psychology, and philosophies of power that ultimately shape all human relations. Often seen as a handbook for the ‘modern Machiavelli’, we take a closer look, beyond the hyperbole, and discuss how understanding and implementing these Laws can actually enrich your life personally, professionally and spiritually.

Jon and Dre aim to get to the heart of each of the Laws, grapple with their sometimes disturbingly amoral nature, and discuss what the Laws mean in everyday life (often revealing their own experiences – good and bad – when they’ve either observed or transgressed them).

 

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