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1-Page Summary of The Laws of Human Nature
Overview
Everyone wants to make better decisions. However, it’s important to understand human nature and how we’re influenced by certain things. This helps us in making the best of situations when we have these tendencies. We don’t like to admit that we’re envious, self-centered or prone to group mentality. But once we acknowledge those aspects of human nature, then they can help us make better decisions in life.
We all have different personalities, but there are some commonalities between people. With a better understanding of human nature, we can improve our lives and gain more control over our impulses.
In this article, you’ll learn why it’s better to have a long-term view of things; why it’s important to keep your team grounded in reality; and how thinking about death can help you stay focused.
Big Idea #1: We are all prone to irrational behavior.
We like to think that we’re smart, but in reality, our emotions often override our rationality.
People have been struggling between their emotions and logic for a long time. One of the earliest proponents of logical behavior was Pericles, who was considered to be one of the greatest statesmen in Athens around 500 BC.
When Athens was threatened by the Spartans, Pericles convinced leaders to not engage in all-out war. Unfortunately, his wisdom didn’t prevail when Athens was stricken with a plague and Pericles died. Instead of following his advice, people were overcome with emotions and waged costly wars that eventually brought down their empire.
Pericles was a great leader, and he had one key trait that made him so successful. He was patient and would think through the consequences of his actions before doing anything rash or impulsive. If there were any problems with the people of Athens, Pericles wouldn’t rush into things but instead take time to consider all options carefully.
Whenever possible, we should try to slow down our decision-making process so that we don’t make rash decisions when emotions are running high. And meanwhile, it’s important to recognize our own biases that might influence us in the wrong direction. There are many of these types of biases including confirmation bias which leads us to seek out information supporting our beliefs and convictions bias which makes us believe whatever strongly feels true is actually true. Other biases include appearance bias where we assume attractive or wealthy people have good character and group bias where we blindly follow what the group believes even if it doesn’t make sense.
It’s important to be analytical and skeptical when making decisions because our biases can easily lead us astray. It’s also wise to balance out your emotions with rational thinking when making a decision, because it will make you more balanced in your approach.
Big Idea #2: We’re all narcissistic to some degree, and we should judge character by actions, not appearances.
Since we’re all human, it’s natural to be irrational and self-absorbed. We also have a need for attention and affection. However, some people are more narcissistic than others. At the low end of the spectrum, people might just be a bit conceited or confident in themselves; at the extreme high end of the spectrum, they may exhibit traits associated with narcissism disorder or personality disorders like antisocial personality disorder (APD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD).
People who are deep narcissists have a faulty sense of self. They see other people as extensions of themselves, and this can be traced back to their childhoods, when they stopped seeing themselves as an extension of their mothers.
