The less you say, the more intimidating and powerful you are. Always say less than necessary. When you do speak, make it vague and ambiguous, leaving the meaning to others to interpret. They’ll be frustrated and obsessed with trying to figure you out.

Why Saying Less Is Key To Power

<ul><li>Because they dislike uncertainty, people want to know what you’re thinking. </li><li>When you control your words, they can’t figure out what you mean or intend.</li></ul>

When you’re silent, you make other people uncomfortable.

<ul><li>They quickly try to fill the silence, and in the process reveal motivations and weaknesses — information you can use.</li><li> Later they’ll obsess over every word you said and its potential implications. The inordinate attention they give to your brief comments adds to your power.</li></ul>

Short answers and silence make people feel defensive

Saying less will make you mysterious. People will struggle to find what did you mean.

The less you say, the more important and profound it seems

<ul><li>When we say more, there's a greater chance to say something foolish. </li><li>For instance, in the early 1800s, a Russian rebel named Ryleyev talked too much and paid for it with his life. Nicholas I had sentenced him to death, but at the moment he was being hanged the rope broke. Believing he’d be pardoned, as usually happened in such cases, he yelled to the crowd that Russia couldn’t get anything right, even rope. Instead of pardoning him, Nicholas responded, “Let’s prove the contrary,” and Ryleyev was hanged the next day with a rope that held. </li></ul>

Saying little avoids the risk of saying something foolish, which

<ul><li>It can make people suspicious</li><li>Sometimes it’s smarter to play the court jester, and make yourself seem foolish and harmless despite being smarter than the king.</li><li>If you want to distract anyone, talking foolish may be used as an <a href="https://dsta.sh/AcGHGPStH2iNHirGA">Smokescreen </a></li></ul>

Things To Remember When Saying Less

The less you say, the more intimidating and powerful you are. Always say less than necessary. When you do speak, make it vague and ambiguous, leaving the meaning to others to interpret. They’ll be frustrated and obsessed with trying to figure you out. 

In The 48 Laws of Power, Law 4 is "Always Say Less Than Necessary." Learn what Law 4 means and how to use it to gain power.

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Always Say Less Than Necessary (48 Laws of Power)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">It’s the Third law from the book "48 Laws of power</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Conceal your intention means keeping people off-balance and in the dark, they can’t counter your efforts.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Send them down the wrong path with a red herring or create a smokescreen and by the time they realize what you’re up to, it will be too late for them to interfere.</li></ul>

What Does It Mean By "Conceal Your Intention"  

<ul><li>Use tools such as fake sincerity, ambiguity, and lures — and people won’t be able to differentiate the genuine from the false to see your goal.</li><li>People tend to be “open books” because talking about feelings and intentions comes naturally. Watching your mouth — monitoring and controlling what you say — takes effort. </li><li>Honesty is likely to offend people. It’s often better to tell people what they want to hear rather than the less flattering truth.</li><li>If you’re totally honest and open, people won’t respect or fear you because you’ll be predictable (to wield power, you need others’ respect and fear).</li></ul>

Use Decoys And Red Herrings  

<ul><li>Broadcast a fake goal, you can use false sincerity as a red herring to throw people off the scent. People are likely to mistake it for honesty.</li><li>To make it even more effective, publicly stress the importance of being honest as a social value. Underscore your supposed honesty by revealing something seemingly personal (but fake or irrelevant) once in a while.</li></ul>

Try Falls Sincerity To Conceal Your Intention 

<ul><li>An effective way to deceive people is to conceal your intentions behind a comfortable and familiar facade — a smokescreen that you create.</li><li>One of the most effective smokescreens is assuming a bland expression and manner. It lulls your target into complacency and he doesn’t notice he’s heading into a trap.</li></ul>

Use Smokescreens  

<ul><li>Make a seemingly noble gesture. Create good feelings all around. People want to believe they’re genuine.</li><li>Create a pattern that serves as a smokescreen.Psychologically, people expect behavior to follow patterns. when they identify a pattern, they feel comfortable anticipating the next step.</li><li>Exploit the human tendency to mistake appearance for reality</li></ul>

Smoke Screen Tactics To Conceal Your Intention 

<ul><li>Diversionary tactics don’t work if you’re already known to be a deceiver. </li><li>Diversionary tactics don’t always have to be subtle.</li></ul>

Caution 

If you’re totally honest and open, people won’t respect or fear you because you’ll be predictable (to wield power, you need others’ respect and fear). If you want to become unpredictable, conceal your intention. Concealing intention is an Art. 



In The 48 Laws of Power, Law 3 is "Conceal Your Intentions." Learn what Law 3 means and how to use it to gain power.

 Conceal Your Intentions (48 Laws of Power)

They will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Be Wary of Friends

<ul><li>Though you think friends are trustworthy, you do not know your friends nearly as well as you imagine.</li><li>A friend will often tell you a sweet lie because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.</li><li>Sometimes they mean their words, sometimes they don’t.</li><li>Your goal is to get things done, the better choice is to work with those who are most competent rather than just hiring friends – this is ideal both for your enterprise and your personal development.</li></ul>

Keep Friends for Friendship, But Work With The Skilled 

<ul><li>People do not like owing a debt to someone else.</li><li>When you help someone in a major way, they feel burden of debt in their soul, and they subconsciously resent you for it.</li><li>They want to feel that they deserve their good fortune.</li><li>When they know that they were chosen because of friendship, not necessarily because they were more deserving, they feel resentful</li><li>You will see this resentment slowly: flashes of envy here and there, and before you know it, you’d have lost your friend.</li><li>Show some gratitude before friendship goes to astray.</li></ul>

Ingratitude Will Kill You

You destroy your enemies once you befriend them.﻿

Hire your enemies once you befriend them.

<ul><li>Your former enemies don’t expect much from you and will be more loyal to you because they have more to prove.</li><li>A man who has something to prove will move mountains for you.</li></ul>

Hire Your Enemies Once You Befriend Them.

<ul><li>Without competition, it’s harder to grow stronger because without competition, you lack that extrinsic motivation – the desire to be better than others.</li><li>You will be more alert, productive, and industrious when you have a few declared enemies – you can’t afford to take it too easy.</li></ul>

Keep Some Enemies Around to Keep You Sharp

<ul><li>Without enemies around us, we grow lazy.</li><li>An enemy at out heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert</li><li>It is sometimes better then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.</li></ul>

Opportunities o Test Yourself

Be wary of friends – they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

People want to feel they deserve their good fortune. Favors lead to resentment: they feel they've been chosen out of friendship, not because they are deserving. Hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove.

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Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies | 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power is a book every man should read. If you’re turned off by the title, check yourself. It may mean you are dangerously naïve. More on that in a later post.﻿

The 48 Laws Of Power 

Never outshine the master means don’t look better than your boss. It sounds simple but gets more interesting the better you understand it. Essentially it means to be humble.

Never Outshine The Master

<ul><li>An employee is a servant and servanthood is powerful. A good servant is humble.</li><li>Serve unobtrusively and don’t be a threat.</li><li>As an employee you’re a guest. Someone else built the company that employs you</li><li>It took time, energy and the benefit of many mistakes and consequent lessons to grow and cultivate it to a point where it can support you and those you love and lead</li></ul>

A good servant is humble.  

<ul><li>It puts the focus on your boss. Help him to achieve his goal. A good boss, a good master, will remember you and reward you. If he is not you still benefit because you will have learned valuable lessons studying him.</li><li>It helps you learn humility. Humility is the first key to self-mastery.</li><li>If you seek to ascend the dominance hierarchy, you’ll learn that as you rise you’re valued more for your judgment and discretion than for any technical expertise you bring to the equation. </li><li>You are always being watched and evaluated by others.</li></ul>

Reasons To Never Outshine the Master  

Never outshine the master means don’t look better than your boss. It sounds simple but gets more interesting the better you understand it. Essentially it means to be humble.

Authentic Masculinity's take on Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power. Do you know why you must never outshine the master? Learn here.

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Law 1: Never Outshine the Master

<ul><li>People may vote with their pocketbooks, but more often than not, they revolt with their bellies. If you want to predict where political instability, revolution, coups d’etat, or interstate warfare will occur, the best factor to keep an eye on is not GDP, the human development index, or energy prices.</li><li>“If I were to pick a single indicator—economic, political, social—that I think will tell us more than any other, it would be the price of grain,” </li></ul>

People Revolt With Their Bellie

Food, of course, is never the sole driver of instability or uprising. Corruption, a lack of democracy, ethnic tension—these better known factors may be critical—but food is often the difference between an unhappy but quiescent population and one in revolt.

Why People Revolt 

Two events have renewed interest among scholars in the relationship between food prices and political instability. The first was the 2007–08 food crisis, which triggered food riots in countries from Haiti to Bangladesh to Mozambique.The second was the Arab Spring, the first signs of which were riots in response to high food prices in Algeria and Tunisia.

Food is an inherently political commodity,

Food played a vital role in history. It still playing. 

People may vote with their pocketbooks, but more often than not, they revolt with their bellies. If you want to predict where political instability,...

Always Say Less Than Necessary (48 Laws of Power)

Conceal Your Intentions (48 Laws of Power)

Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies | 48 Laws of Power

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master

Food Prices Are Going to Topple a Lot More Governments

Nauajish Rahman