Robert Greene: The Laws of Human Nature @ Talks at Google (Transcript)

Robert Greene is an American author known for his books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written six international bestsellers: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature.

In this talk, Robert discusses how to detach from one’s emotions to better understand intrinsic motivations in order to make better decision and master self-control.

TRANSCRIPT:

ROBERT GREENE: Thank you so much for coming. I’ve been a big fan of Google since way back since the late ’90s. I even wrote a blog post many years ago comparing Google to the warfare of Napoleon Bonaparte and Sun Tzu. So I’ve been a big fan for years.

And it’s always been a great honor for me to talk Google. This is my third Google talk. So thank you very much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Now today, I’m going to be taking all of you inside my latest book, “The Laws of Human Nature,” because I believe it has the potential to change your life, to actually change how you look at the world.

But I want to begin by telling you a story that I relate in this book. And the story concerns a man named John Blunt, a prominent English businessman in the early 18th century.

Now Mr. Blunt was a leading director of an enterprise called the South Sea Company. And basically, at this time, the English government had massive debts, more than any other country in history, from financing all the wars they had been fighting. It was basically valued at around £31 million, which was enormous.