So, a couple months ago two friends of mine - my one art school colleague who wears women's clothes, and my one library circulation desk supervisor friend - both recommended this self-help book by the head of a nationally-known security company, when we were all out talking and I was saying I needed a self-help book to read in order to complete this reading challenge from my local public library.
As it turns out, I *love* the book, and devoured it in a week once I finally got around to reading it.
The purported topic of the book is about protecting yourself from violence, but it's really more about protecting yourself from manipulation.
What got me is that I already do the first 2 things the author warns against, whenever I cold-call art school colleagues for unionization:
1) I always say "we" to create a group sense between me and the cold-called colleague and so subtly increase rapport.
2) I always give a "bullshit story" on how I'm checking around to see if anyone has touched base with them (though I've done my research and know that no-one has).
Interestingly, I also realized that I *don't* do the 3rd thing the author says to be on the lookout for, the insertion of negative stereotypes into conversation in order to get people to react against them and in the desired behavioral direction.
For example, a truly manipulative organizer would be like, "You know, it'd be great if you had a second to talk, you'd be surprised to know how many people don't want to find out how the school *really* works" (= an incentive for them to not be like those people, and keep up the conversation).
So, I'm going to do that in the future!
Really, I'm just reverse-engineering his cautionary tips on manipulative people, in order to figure out how to be more manipulative.
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