71: Taking and Keeping Power: The Dictator's Handbook

"The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function—although it has that too—but it has also a creative function. Man’s nature, his passions, and anxieties are a cultural product; as a matter of fact, man himself is the most important creation and achievement of the continuous human effort, the record of which we call history."

In this episode of Made You Think, Nat and Neil are joined by Paul Millerd to discuss their key takeaways from Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm. In this book, Fromm makes a connection between the rise of capitalism to the beginning of man's conflict with the modern sense of freedom. In this episode of Made You Think, we cover a wide range of topics including:

• Positive freedom and negative freedom
• Finding work that is internally motivating rather than work that is thrust upon you
• How the economic system impacts our psychology
• Comparison: Why it's easy to compare your progress and accomplishments to others'
• The two-fold approach on the pursuit of power

And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Paul on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.

Links from the Episode

Mentioned in the Show

• Episode 69: The Quest of the Simple Life (6:19)
• Mixergy (24:33)
• 2Pac video (33:04)
• Episode 66: Making the Navalmanack (36:07)
• Principal of 2 Schools (48:26)

Books Mentioned

• Escape From Freedom (Nat's Book Notes)
• Awaken the Giant Within (9:47) (Nat’s Book Notes)
• The Art of Loving (27:02)
• Amusing Ourselves to Death (35:16) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes)
• Finite and Infinite Games (38:14) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes)
• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (42:12) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes)
• The Beginning of Infinity (52:10) (Book Episode) (Nat's Book Notes)
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (53:00)
• The Pathless Path (58:15)
• King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (1:12:37)
• The Dictator’s Handbook (12:40:17)

People Mentioned

• Tony Robbins (9:49)
• Cal Newport (36:51)
• David Perell (59:40)
• Tiago Forte (59:41)
• Tim Ferriss (1:01:53)
• David Foster Wallace (1:03:26)
• Scott Alexander (1:07:20)

Show Notes

0:34 Today we are joined by Paul Millerd, long-time MYT listener and author o...