The Law of the Sublime - Robert Greene

[Ulax]

1 minute ago, BlessedLion said:

I'd agree, i tried the Laws of Power book and found it way too negative and ultimately untrue. 

There seem to be a camp of people who believe everything humans do boils down to power and sex, which is a large factor, but it's not everything and honestly not that important, well sex is important, power dynamics, meh.

Power dynamics are very important. but most people's understanding of what counts as power is very warped.

 

[Ulax]

5 hours ago, Ajay0 said:

 I read some of Robert Greene's books, but found them machiavellian and indulging in politics related to psychology and marketing.

It may be good for superficial short-term tactics while engaging in the material world, but does not provide the strategic substratum for long-term development leading to peace and happiness.

If you are living solely by such machiavellian tactics, life is bound to be superficial, conflict-prone and hollow, imho.

A key issue is that reading Greene, someone is just going to become a theory junkie very easily.

Its like watching a tonne of pickup videos and then thinking you're a stud. Nah you gotta take the theory and practice reps, until you hone the theory until its second nature, and understand where you go wrong in applying it.

At least with pickup they bang you over the head with the need to actually go out and practice that shi like an animal.

Edited Friday at 10:57 AM by Ulax

[BlessedLion]

19 hours ago, Ulax said:

When people write outside of their skillset, they will produce bs

Unless they have a direct realization of something True, like Eckhart Tolle, he had an awakening and wrote a powerful book about it with little to no skillset in that field. He just geniunely understood it because he experienced it.

[BlessedLion]

18 hours ago, Ulax said:

Power dynamics are very important. but most people's understanding of what counts as power is very warped.

 

Depends on how we are defining power. I see power more as an internal thing rather than "power over" others 

[Ulax]

33 minutes ago, BlessedLion said:

Unless they have a direct realization of something True, like Eckhart Tolle, he had an awakening and wrote a powerful book about it with little to no skillset in that field. He just geniunely understood it because he experienced it.

true

[Ulax]

32 minutes ago, BlessedLion said:

Depends on how we are defining power. I see power more as an internal thing rather than "power over" others 

I use power more as a value dynamics thing. Powerful people being those who can seem high relative value compared to others

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Ulax are you a fan or Greene's work, or find him too controversial?

[Ulax]

2 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Ulax are you a fan or Greene's work, or find him too controversial?

I like him but wouldn't say I'm a fan, and I don't find him very controversial.

I'd probably be much more interested in Greene if I'd come across him before people like Peterson, and RSD pickup guys.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Just now, Ulax said:

I'd probably be much more interested in Greene if I'd come across him before people like Peterson, and RSD pickup guys.

I was into him prior to Peterson and a lot of the big podcast crowd (RSD stuff is very recent for me, intrigue). So it felt very different. Novel. So I think there is something to this. 

I was a bit green around the gills when I read 48 laws and the art of seduction. In retrospect I am sort of perplexed my Mum was cool with me reading them in high school.

[Joseph Maynor]

 

[Human Mint]

On 11/5/2026 at 0:50 AM, Ramanujan said:

@LordFall laws of human nature is a masterpiece. I am half way through

Its as greate as 48 laws of power

 

His book Mastery is grabage

 

33 strategies of war, 48 laws of power and laws of humam nature are 10/10 books

 

 

No idea what to expect from law of the sublime. Its not his area of expertise. 

Funny, to me is exactly the oposite. I didn't find any value in 48 lop.

Mastery is a book where you can take a peak into different expertise domains, Da Vinci, Jobs, Darwing. I loved that. A lot of useful concepts get ingrained indirectly.

[LordFall]

On 11/6/2026 at 0:17 AM, Ajay0 said:

I read some of Robert Greene's books, but found them machiavellian and indulging in politics related to psychology and marketing.

It may be good for superficial short-term tactics while engaging in the material world, but does not provide the strategic substratum for long-term development leading to peace and happiness.

If you are living solely by such machiavellian tactics, life is bound to be superficial, conflict-prone and hollow, imho.

I noticed that Greene himself is a student of Zen Buddhism, possibly feeling discontentment or dissatisfaction with his personal philosophies.

Man to me I find the exact opposite. Only by understanding the darker side of life can you champion light and defeat those who would stand in your ways. If one tries to have a powerful life purpose that's centered around helping humanity but is not familiar with how power in human society works, he or she is bound to be not that successful in their endeavours as the status quo will fight back ferociously.

Although I agree that it's important to not just read books about power and material strategy otherwise you will become too cynical and rob yourself of appreciating the more delicate and beautiful things in life.

On 11/5/2026 at 10:22 AM, Ramanujan said:

I read his book  a long time ago. I tried to find my life's task. After 3 years i discovered leo's course. But mastery by Robert Greene  was my main OS . I tried to find my life's task ,  i neglected everything. I thought if i find my life's task , i can become greate. After 7 years i found my life's task. I realised , India is not America. Very few opertunities exist. All these 7 years , i wasted opertunities after opertunities. I cannot make money from my life's task. It  can only be done on the side. I wasted 7 years trying to find my life's task. 

Fuck him. American self help gurus can say anything they want. India is different. The only way to have a decent life in India is to study well in school and college. Its a hellhole here. 

Americans have an easy life. If Robert Greene was born in India , he would beg for a government job or an IT job 

That's fair, I think it's more of a philosophy book around life purpose rather than a direct how to guide. A lot of times the way to get to your life purpose is to make a lot of money in a more practical and less spiritual industry and then build another purposeful business on the side.

@Natasha Tori Maru I think it should be assigned reading in History class for all high schoolers! If everyone was taught the underhanded ways in which society works instead of vague and sanitized history, citizens would be a lot more efficient and capable of critical thinking than they are now. 

@Heaven Yeah the beauty of the present moment is not a new subject but I'm curious to see how Robert handles it. Have you read the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle? That one was quite good but a bit airy fairy and poetic vs the more gritty version that I'm hoping Robert writes.

If he makes it like his other ones he's gonna pick all kinds of famous figures of history and how they connected to spirituality after achieving success in the material world which I'm very curious to read. 

Edited 12 hours ago by LordFall

[Ulax]

18 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

I was into him prior to Peterson and a lot of the big podcast crowd (RSD stuff is very recent for me, intrigue). So it felt very different. Novel. So I think there is something to this. 

I was a bit green around the gills when I read 48 laws and the art of seduction. In retrospect I am sort of perplexed my Mum was cool with me reading them in high school.

Interesting. I've also been more cynical re social dynamics, so might be why it had less of an impact on me too. 

The big difference between greene and rsd guys is that greene is really just theorising where as the rsd guys are pulling from mountains of experience

[WonderSeeker]

On 11/5/2026 at 7:11 AM, LordFall said:

Seems like he went through his own Eckhart Tolle like experience being stuck in his backyard for 7 years after having a stroke and ended up seeing life in a new light and writing this book. Looks like a banger, I'm excited to read it. By listening him to talk about it, the main idea seems to be about enjoyment of the present moment and being able to enjoy the sublime simplicity of life. He breaks it down into 12 areas that he feels represent most the concept. 

He's probably my favorite author of all time so I'm very excited to see how he mixes his usual practicality and historical prose with a more spiritual topic. Interesting to see him go from more achievement-based topics to a more esoteric inquiry with the one before that being a Marcus Aurelius type book on his 366 Meditations and before that reflecting on human nature and now the sublime nature of existence itself. 

His Art of Seduction book was gold. Need to go back and start applying some of it more deeply as the part about a seduction being a long arc with different phases resonated with me (now I'm actually seeing one play-out in real time which I didn't expect).

This new book sounds like it ought to be a hit. I'm more interested in going deeper with Conversations with God, Books 2-4 and Whereof One Cannot Speak by Peter Ralston over the coming months/years. As far as "spiritual" books go I'm quite picky and lean towards authors who frame it as Consciousness/God/Awakening.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, Ulax said:

greene is really just theorising

So you conclude he based nothing on experience?

[Ulax]

47 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

So you conclude he based nothing on experience?

Sort of

[Rafael Thundercat]

 Nobody Read his book, the art of the Seduction?