The Laws Of Human Nature

The Laws of Human Nature helps you understand why people do what they do and how you can use both your own psychological flaws and those of others to your advantage at work, in relationships, and in life.

Historically acclaimed playwright Anton Chekhov had every reason not to become the legend he is today. His father beat him and forced Anton to skip school to work for him. Ultimately, his bad business dealings even forced the family to flee from their hometown. Worse still, they left Anton behind at the ripe age of…sixteen.

The core of human behavior Greene gets to in the book is patterns and with such a childhood, you’d naturally expect bad patterns, like alcoholism, aggression, or others, to follow in Chekhov’s life. But they didn’t. Chekhov had developed a strong sense of empathy, which allowed him to see his father as the troubled man that he was. He pitied him and was able to let go of his anger.

Forgiving his father and letting go of these negative emotions was the ultimate personal freedom for Anton Chekhov, which allowed him to create the life he wanted to live – a life as a writer.

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks talks about self-inflicted upper limits, ceilings, that prevent us from getting to the next level. Having a positive baseline attitude towards life, no matter how bad your circumstances, is the number one way to keep yourself from subconsciously establishing them.

In what Greene calls The Law of Gender Repression, he tells the story of Caterina Sforza, a powerful Italian noblewoman from the 15th century. Thanks to the wealth of her family, she was able to explore all her passions. These included fashion and arts, but also physical combat. Refusing to succumb to gender stereotypes made her one of the most fascinating public figures of her time.

There’s no denying our biology. Men and women are different. Us males are usually better at focusing, zeroing in on something, and going after it. We want to separate the world into categories that make sense and neatly file everything in our brains.

Women, on the other hand, tend to be more pattern-focused. They like to collect, not just things, but information too, and weave it into a coherent web that connects.

And yet, only when we embrace both our male and female tendencies as people can we reap the benefits of these different mental characteristics. Both have value on their own and we’ll always lean more towards one than the other, but their combination is the most powerful way to process and make sense of the world.