Robert Greene
Author and Speaker. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
authorother@RobertGreene ↗powerseductionandwar.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Robert Greene is an author and speaker known for his work on power dynamics, human psychology, and strategy. He draws on classical history and biographical case studies to explore influence, emotional control, and human behavior.
2shows
2appearances
38statements
4resolved
3supported
1contradicted
75%fully supported
52said about them ↓ Everything Robert Greene said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Greene: Social authenticity is a myth because human interaction requires role-playing
“Nobody is ever authentic. It's a myth. It's bullshit, in fact, and it kind of is annoying because to be a human being is to be social and is to wear a mask, is to be an actor.”
Greene: Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs was rushed and shallow.
“You know, I like Walter Isaacson. I think he's a very fine biographer, but You know, even like the Steve jobs that he's rushed, he's got to write it because she just died. And like, I don't really feel like when I read that book, I understand the man, Steve jo…”
Greene: Managing egos and politics is 90% of the career game
“Ego, politics, playing, you know, making other people look good. That is 90% of the game, especially when you're starting out.”
Greene: Supplying fantasy and illusion grants immense social power
“We want to be led. We actually want to be deceived. We want illusion. We want fantasy. We want pleasure, and so you want to be the person that's supplying that fantasy, that's giving people that pleasure, because if you do, it gives you a lot of power, right?”
Greene: Indirect communication is more powerful than giving direct instructions
“If you can be clever, and you can kind of indicate, and you can kind of send them in a certain direction, it's a much more powerful form of communication.”
Greene: Only about 5% of people intuitively understand power dynamics
“If I had to put a percentage on it, and I've thought about this, and it's not scientific by no means, I think about five percent of people actually understand these laws intuitively”
Greene: Business is merciless and predatory competitors circle entrepreneurs
“As an entrepreneur, this business that you created at this very moment, there are vultures circling around. We're going to buy your business out and crush you because that's how business works, right? It's a merciless environment.”
Greene: Society will abandon authenticity for social role-playing within 20 years
“In 1020 years people are going to react against that and they're going to be more into fantasy and role playing and wearing those masks and having fun in the social environment.”
Greene: Failing to use leverage signals weakness and invites future exploitation
“When you have leverage in a situation, in any situation in life, you have to use your leverage, and what a lot of people do, they're afraid of the leverage that they have. They're afraid they're going to offend the other person. They're afraid they're going to…”
Greene: Overexposure on social media destroys a celebrity's aura within a year
“And I say, if you do too much of that, I'm not going to use her name, People will become so familiar with you that you're gonna lose that aura of being a celebrity. They're gonna take you for granted, and you might shine for a year with being out there and hav…”
Greene: Relationships inevitably fizzle without constant mystery and surprise
“If you dress a certain way that seems a little bit out of character, not completely out of character, you go, wow, you need to do that in a relationship constantly, otherwise it's just gonna fizzle, all the energy's gonna go out of it.”
Greene: Most Books on Power Ignore How Manipulative People Truly Are
“A lot of the books out there that talk about power in this world, I feel like really unrealistic. They're very wary of the truth. And the truth is, as I discovered in all my different jobs, is that people are, can be very manipulative. They don't show it. It's…”
Greene: Entering a book with a rigid outline kills the writing
“And so it's a growing process, as I said, you keep it open, because if you go into a book, oh, I know exactly what it's going to be, and how many chapters, and what, it dies on the vine.”
Greene: Much contemporary nonfiction is thin and poorly thought through
“Some of it, quite honestly, is really bad. I just say it outright. You know, I read books About envy, or I have them on my shelf. I have dozens of them, and they're so thin, and they're so unthought through and they're so irritating that I much prefer the way …”
Greene: Excessive talking signals insecurity, whereas admitting mistakes signals authenticity
“They're talking so much, but that's always a sign of insecurity. A kind of a quietness, a seriousness people who kind of admit that they're not always right generally are signs of the non-bullshitter.”
Greene: Dangerous narcissists do not perceive themselves as manipulative
“People who are like this, they don't think that they're narcissists. They don't think that they're evil. They don't think that what they're doing is manipulative, or they're even operating by laws. These are just things that come naturally to them.”
Greene: Power requires soft influence because ruthless aggression creates vindictive enemies
“If you're alienating everybody, if you're crushing all of these people, if you're just having lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit, there, there'll be a bounce back effect where you won't have many allies next time you're in trouble, right? People will resent y…”
Greene: Self-awareness separates seductive figures from anti-seductive ones
“So a seductive person is self-aware. They're self-aware of their body language, Of, you know, the clothes that they wear, of how they talk. The anti-seductive person has no self-awareness.”
Greene: "48 Laws of Power" sales spiked after Donald Trump's election.
“Every now and then there'll be an article and suddenly the sales spike, or when Trump got elected, suddenly the sales spiked.”
Robert Greene: Technical competence without interpersonal skill will not lead to success
“In order to be good in your field, you have to know how to deal with people. That's Well over half the equation in any kind of power situation, so you could be brilliant at coding or whatever it is that you're good at, but if you don't know how to deal with pe…”
Greene: Projects should remain open-ended early on to maintain creative discovery
“In any project, you need to keep things a little bit, you have to keep things open-ended, so that you're just constantly discovering, and that keeps you excited and energized and creative, so I never kind of close the book.”
Greene: A book on human nature cannot focus solely on white men
“You can't write a book about human nature if it's all white men”
Greene: Handwriting notes fosters deeper thinking than typing on a computer
“Writing things out by hand has a logic to it. So when I'm going through a book, and I'm taking notes, and I'm scrawling with my fountain pen on a card, I'm actually thinking more deeply than when I'm sitting there typing stuff on the computer. I don't know how…”
Greene actively avoids reading Malcolm Gladwell to preserve his own originality.
“He's a great writer, but I try not to read his books because I don't want to be covering or overlapping or being inspired by what's already out there. I want to hit something new. I want to be original. I want to say something that comes from my brain.”
The other half of the tape: Robert Greene's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 50 times in 8 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Codie Sanchez 21Shane Parrish 18Ryan Holiday 9Dara Ladjevardian 2
Statements about Robert Greene, by other people (2)
Robert Greene spends 80 percent of his working time on research
“I would say probably 80% of his work is in the research, and 20% is in the writing.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
BigDeal 26
the Knowledge Project 24
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 23 mentions in 4 episodes 6 per episode
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2016 24 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Robert's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KNOWLEDGE PROJECTLEDGER | Author and Speaker | 1 | 23 | 75% 3/4 | full record on the Knowledge Project → |
| BIGDEALLEDGER | Author and Speaker | 1 | 15 | — | full record on BigDeal → |