The Laws of Human Nature summary

Along with our tendencies to be irrational, human nature also carries with it the need for a certain amount of attention and self-absorption. In fact, by our very nature, we’re all narcissistic to some extent. This means each of us exists on a spectrum, ranging from healthy levels of narcissism to deep narcissism.

Deep narcissists are usually people with a faulty sense of self, where they see other people as an extension of themselves. This can be traced back to childhood and the years between two and five years old, the age when a person stops seeing themselves as an extension of their mother and develops a sense of individual personhood.

Each and every one of us has a character that is a mix of strong and weak qualities. Some of these qualities we gain genetically, others are from our upbringing. Then there are the ones we pick up later in life. For example, researchers have found evidence that some newborns are more hostile than others, suggesting that our aggression levels are genetic.

But our innate traits aren’t a prison. We can control them, and even weak ones can be used to our advantage. No matter the cards we’ve been dealt in life, we can strive to be of superior character.

You might wonder why so much money and attention goes toward fighting terrorism while global warming, which affects all living things on the planet, is trivialized.

The reason is very much tied to human nature. You’re far more likely to react to something that’s right in front of you here and now. This short-sightedness goes back a long way, to when survival was based on immediate concerns, such as finding food and water and avoiding violent predators like the saber-toothed tiger.

Do you ever feel like you’re cursed, or perhaps doomed to failure? If so, it’s likely due to certain unhelpful traits that you need to recognize and get under control. When you look within and see what’s repeatedly causing the same negative outcomes, then you can turn things around and avoid future calamities.

Believe it or not, one of the main contributors to self-sabotage is a negative attitude. Fortunately, that’s something you can change.

If you know someone who’s experienced even a little success, you may have looked on in wonder as that success went to their head and they proceeded to lose touch with reality. This is known as the Law of Grandiosity.

Take the career of Michael Eisner: In 1976, Eisner made the leap from successful TV executive to head of the Paramount film studio. During his tenure, Paramount had a string of hits, even becoming the leading studio in Hollywood for a period.

In 1463, Caterina Sforza was born into a powerful dynasty in Milan, Italy, giving her the chance to pursue whatever interests she had.

From a young age, Caterina had been drawn to physical combat training as well as fashion and the arts, so she became a student of both. In other words, Caterina was free to indulge both her feminine and masculine sides, becoming a strong figure who fascinated both the men and women of Milan. This universal fascination is something that artists like David Bowie achieve as well, when they explore both the masculine and feminine parts of their personality.

We like to think of ourselves as unique, civilized and sophisticated individuals with independent minds. But if we pay close attention to human nature, we see that we also spend a lot of time worrying about what others think and how well we fit into certain groups.

While it’s true that we’ve come a long way from our tribal roots, we still tend to devolve into primitive, reactionary thinking when we’re part of a group. It’s not a pleasant thing to consider, but we’d all be better off to recognize that this tendency is within all of us.

In the mid-nineteenth century, businessman Maurice Clark met an unassuming guy who came from a troubled background. This was John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller’s father had been a notorious con man who would often take off suddenly, leaving his family with barely enough money to keep from starving.

Clark didn’t know it at the time, but Rockefeller’s childhood left him with an obsession for accumulating money and being in control of an orderly and predictable environment – the things he’d grown up without. All Clark saw was a guy who was deeply religious and had a knack for irritating him to no end.

Back in the fourteenth century, the Egyptian historian Ibn Khaldun suggested that generations run in a cycle of four different types.

The first is a revolutionary generation that brings about great change, which is followed by a generation of order and stability. The third generation focuses on pragmatism and comfort, while the fourth generation is one of inquiry and cynicism. The trends in this pattern aren’t set in stone, but we can see how each generation is influenced and responds to the one that came before it.