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Here are two books that explain a lot about politics. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and A

by tjalfi 6y ago

Here are two books that explain a lot about politics. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - Tim Marshall

credit_guy 6y ago
I'll second "The Dictator's Handbook". And if anyone is thinking, "I don't need this, I don't have any plans to become a dictator", you're thinking just like I was thinking a few years ago. When finally I read it, I kicked myself for passing on such a great book because of its silly name. This book does indeed change the way you understand the world (Small caveat: the authors stretch their theory to cover some cases such as corporate governance. That part felt quite weak to me. You can just ignore it. The rest of the book more than makes up for this). And here's another one that's somewhat similar: "Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook". The title is not just a joke, unfortunately. Some coups were indeed carried out following the advice in this book (which was obviously not the author's intention, but life sometimes takes unexpected turns). The second edition of this book was published in 2015, just one year before the attempted coup in Turkey. Armed with the knowledge from this book, you can go and analyze what happened in Turkey and it's going to make a lot of sense.
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  I'll 3rd the Dictator's Handbook. Also the 48 Laws of Power. Once you start seeing things through that lens, the world looks like both a darker, meaner, but at times surprisingly nicer, place.
  - heymijo 6y ago
    I put off reading the 48 Laws of Power for a long time for reasons similar to OP. Probably should have read it sooner but at least I had plenty of experience to compare against it when I finally did suck it up and read it. I will add Dictator's Handbook to my queue and raise my hand and 4th the 48 Laws of Power

by tjalfi 6y ago

credit_guy 6y ago

I'll second "The Dictator's Handbook". And if anyone is thinking, "I don't need this, I don't have any plans to become a dictator", you're thinking just like I was thinking a few years ago. When finally I read it, I kicked myself for passing on such a great book because of its silly name. This book does indeed change the way you understand the world (Small caveat: the authors stretch their theory to cover some cases such as corporate governance. That part felt quite weak to me. You can just ignore it. The rest of the book more than makes up for this). And here's another one that's somewhat similar: "Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook". The title is not just a joke, unfortunately. Some coups were indeed carried out following the advice in this book (which was obviously not the author's intention, but life sometimes takes unexpected turns). The second edition of this book was published in 2015, just one year before the attempted coup in Turkey. Armed with the knowledge from this book, you can go and analyze what happened in Turkey and it's going to make a lot of sense.

blaser-waffle 6y ago
I'll 3rd the Dictator's Handbook. Also the 48 Laws of Power. Once you start seeing things through that lens, the world looks like both a darker, meaner, but at times surprisingly nicer, place.
- heymijo 6y ago
  I put off reading the 48 Laws of Power for a long time for reasons similar to OP. Probably should have read it sooner but at least I had plenty of experience to compare against it when I finally did suck it up and read it. I will add Dictator's Handbook to my queue and raise my hand and 4th the 48 Laws of Power