Leo D.M.J. Aurini - High Level Strategy

A few days ago, Don Lack posted a brilliant post on his blog, Paradigm Shift, titled, "There is No Game." And it immediately called to mind a few other sayings: There is no spoon, do or do not, there is no try, and God will provide. And it all boils down to this complete misunderstanding of high strategy. Because strategy is this upper level mathematical thing that governs our life. And yet there is a very real pattern that governs the lives of men. And they seem to contradict themselves constantly.

00:00:00.000 A few days ago, Don Lack posted a brilliant post on his blog, Paradigm Shift, titled,

00:00:08.920 There is no game. The premise being that once you've understood game, once you've practiced

00:00:17.000 game, you've studied it, and you've become an expert at it, you realize that the highest form

00:00:23.580 of game is no game at all, that really there is no such thing, but that you can only know

00:00:32.340 this by surpassing it. And it immediately called to mind a few other sayings. There is no spoon.

00:00:46.580 Do or do not, there is no try. Have faith, and God will provide.

00:00:55.620 And you know, that last one upsets atheist cult so much, and I can already hear their rejections 0.82

00:01:05.100 of it. If God will provide, then why does evil exist in the world? And it all boils down to

00:01:14.720 this complete misunderstanding of high strategy. Because strategy is this upper level mathematical

00:01:25.340 thing that governs our life. That is so true that when you stop trying is when you succeed.

00:01:37.660 When the student is ready, the teacher appears. That life has a way of sorting itself out when

00:01:46.980 you're doing what you need to be doing already. But see, all of this high level strategy seems

00:01:56.660 to contradict yourself. If you only hear the surface level. If you try and apply it down at the dirt

00:02:07.000 of your feet, crawling around in mud, it makes no sense. And yet there is this very real pattern

00:02:16.440 that governs the lives of men.

00:02:20.000 Now, this is my copy of Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power. I got it on sale for $10 way back

00:02:29.440 in the day. I was fortunate enough to actually be an administrator on the Man's Forum, back on 0.78

00:02:37.220 the Rubeus Media Board. I'm sure he doesn't remember me at all. An absolutely brilliant man.

00:02:44.000 the modern day Sun Tzu. I am such a huge fan of his books. Although I will say that this one is my least

00:02:55.040 favorite. You see, the 48 Laws of Power is about being a courtier or a politician, which is really the

00:03:05.440 furthest thing from my interest. It's about how to accrue power within an organization.

00:03:15.440 The Art of Seduction is absolutely amazing, and I do have a copy of that on my shelf, but that has become

00:03:23.440 so internalized that I really can't tell you where that book ends and I begin. And as for the 33 Strategies of War,

00:03:31.440 my favorite of the three that I've read, he does have a fourth book out, that disappeared into the list of

00:03:39.440 books lent to friends who never returned them. But the 48 Strategies, or the 48 Laws of Power, although not the book

00:03:53.440 the book that most strongly applies to my personality type and what I'm doing with life, is still just as

00:04:01.440 amazing as the rest of his works. And it's also the perfect example of how strategy, whether it's Sun Tzu's Art of Warfare,

00:04:09.440 the Hagakure, which is, I suppose, more culture than warfare, or the Book of Five Rings. So none of these things

00:04:21.440 make literal sense. These are not bits and pieces that can be diced up and analyzed. These are higher

00:04:29.440 strategies, and they seem to contradict themselves constantly. So I was going through the 48 Laws, and I

00:04:41.440 want to find a few that were the most obvious contradictions for you. So, contradiction,

00:04:49.440 that's our first one. Law number 26. Keep your hands clean. You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency.

00:05:01.440 Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using

00:05:08.440 others' scapegoats and cats' paws to disguise your involvement. And then, two laws later, we have 28.

00:05:20.440 Enter action with boldness. If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and

00:05:28.440 hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous. Better to enter with boldness. Any

00:05:37.440 mistake you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the

00:05:44.440 bold. No one honors the timid. The SAS will tell you all about that. But see, here you have these two

00:05:51.440 laws that seemingly contradict one another. To keep your hands clean, to not get involved, but then to

00:05:58.440 take decisive action. And on top of that, they both come along with reversals. Every law in this book, which is

00:06:06.440 in this book, with one exception, do not associate with negative people. Every law has a reversal, a

00:06:16.440 time when you need to do the opposite. And so these seemingly contradictory laws that have their own

00:06:26.440 reversals, they're meant to be applied at different times for different reasons. And the full exploration of

00:06:35.440 when and why those times are, you're not going to find that in a scientific manual. Now the second set of laws. Law number 41. Avoid

00:06:53.440 stepping into the great man's shoes. What happens first always appears better and more original than what

00:07:03.440 comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their

00:07:09.440 achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadows or stuck in the past, not of your own

00:07:15.440 making. Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father. Disparage his legacy

00:07:23.440 and gain power by shining in your own way. Trudeau's son could really benefit from hearing that. And law 46. Never appear too

00:07:38.440 perfect. Appearing better than others is always dangerous. But most dangerous of all is to appear to have no

00:07:47.440 faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects and admit to

00:07:55.440 harmless vices in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem

00:08:01.440 perfect with impunity. So here you have it. Your godlike father. That you have to do twice as much work to

00:08:19.440 outshine him. And yet you should never outshine the master, which is law number one. And specifically not him, because in death

00:08:26.440 he can be perfect, whereas you must always have frailties. And yet you can't have frailties

00:08:32.440 or they'll be exploited.

00:08:40.440 Now I trust that all of you can see the wisdom in these laws. A little bit sociopathic, perhaps. These are how to

00:08:48.440 rise through the ranks of the corporation. Machiavelli, despite a deeply moral man, was quite blunt when he wrote

00:08:58.440 The Prince. Discourses of oblivion are a little bit more emotionally mature.

00:09:05.440 So you can see the wisdom in these, and yet also the contradictions. To try and put these ideas in any sort of

00:09:18.440 context where they would make sense, you're only going to find that in fiction.

00:09:23.440 It's one of the funny things about the universe, or maybe just our way of approaching the universe. The particular

00:09:35.440 unique way that the human mind works.

00:09:40.440 Despite all our pretensions, we're not creatures of science, we're creatures of magic, of story and narrative structure.

00:09:47.440 And so long as we try and be pure creatures of science, we can never rise above it.

00:10:03.440 This is what Donlack was trying to say about game. That, for the young man, you need to fake it until you make it.

00:10:14.440 You need to walk around in your father's shoes. You need to use these artifices to bolster yourself to finally become the man that you will be.

00:10:27.440 But when you become that man...

00:10:33.440 When I was a child, I played with childlike things, childlike ideas. Now that I am a man, I have a man's ideals.

00:10:45.440 It's no different from that. This isn't saying reject game, or discredit game, but that by trying to fulfill that role of being a man, you're actually using the tools that the man won't use.

00:11:03.440 Same way a child plays with toys to become an adult, but an adult does not play with toys.

00:11:12.440 That there's this possibility for greatness in us, but eventually we all need to put down a child's playthings.

00:11:21.440 I'm going to leave you with two quotes. One from C.S. Lewis, and one from a man whom he mistook for an enemy, Nietzsche.

00:11:37.440 C.S. Lewis

00:11:41.440 Already the new men are dotted here and there, all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognizable, but others can be recognized.

00:11:53.440 Every now and then one meets them. Their voices and faces are different from ours. Stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognizable.

00:12:08.440 C.S. Lewis

00:12:13.440 And from Nietzsche

00:12:17.440 The earth is free even now for great souls. There are still many empty seats for the lonesome and the twosome, fanned by the fragrance of silent seas.

00:12:28.440 Only in narrative do our lives really make any sense.

00:12:44.440 Only by not looking for love do we find it.

00:12:49.440 Only by not trying do we succeed.

00:12:59.440 Hope for nothing.

00:13:01.440 But the one or two things that you do know, those unknowable truths, have faith in those.

00:13:09.440 Irini out, my brothers.

00:13:10.440 Irini out, my brothers.

00:13:11.440 Thank you.

Leo D.M.J. Aurini - February 09, 2013

High Level Strategy

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