Daily Laws - Measured Microdoses of Machiavellian Manipulations
Release Date: 12/07/2025
Daily Laws - Measured Microdoses of Machiavellian Manipulations
We Are Not Saved
Banned in most prisons! That feels like a point in the book’s favor, but I’m not entirely sure I can articulate why. The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature By: Robert Greene Published: 2021 464 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A “page a day” book collecting bits of wisdom from Robert Greene’s other books (Laws of Power, Art of Seduction, Strategies of War, etc.) What's the author's angle? As a general matter Greene is something of a Machiavellian figure, he’s going to tell it like it is, and give you the tools you really...
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Saga of the Forgotten Warrior - Larry Correia Without Guns (Mostly)
We Are Not Saved
If John Wick and Judge Dredd loved each other very much… Saga of the Forgotten Warrior By: Larry Correia 1- Son of the Black Sword 2- House of Assassins 3- Destroyer of Worlds 4- Tower of Silence 5- Graveyard of Demons 6- Heart of the Mountain Briefly, what is this series about? The series is set on the continent of Lok, in a world inspired by feudal India and Southeast Asia, meaning that there are castes, and outside of that, the casteless, who are literal non-people. The story follows Ashok Vadal, a pitiless “Protector of the Law”. The Order of the Protectors is like a branch of...
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Romancing Opiates - Working With British Prisoners Makes One Grumpy
We Are Not Saved
When "stigmatizing" has become a bad word and a bad thing everywhere and for every one, one brave British curmudgeon dares to demand it's return! Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy By: Theodore Dalrymple Published: 2006 160 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This book aims to shatter some of the myths around opioid addiction. The first part covers the myth that stopping opioids cold turkey is both painful and dangerous. The second part dissects the myths propagated by literature, primarily Coleridge and De Quincey. The final part ties it into an...
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The Unaccountability Machine - Once Again It’s Somehow All Milton Friedman’s Fault
We Are Not Saved
Maybe the answer really is to be found in early 1970’s Chilean socialism… The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind By: Dan Davies Published: 2024 304 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The development of accountability sinks, a construct used by governments, corporations, and really any large-scale organization to deflect responsibility (and potential punishment) away from individuals and into processes. As part of his critique and his hoped for solution Davies leans heavily into management cybernetics and Stafford...
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The Future of Truth - I’ll Be Honest It Doesn’t Look Great
We Are Not Saved
Pick it up because it’s short. Continue it because of the brutal Bavarian accent. Finish it because maybe he’s on to something? The Future of Truth By: Werner Herzog Published: 2025 128 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Legendary badass, and sometimes filmmaker Werner Herzog weighs in on the concept of truth, how best to represent truth, and what’s happening to it. Drawing on his own experiences he distinguishes between dry, factual truth, and what he calls ecstatic truth, a deeper kind of truth revealed by art. Who should read this book? I don’t think anyone should...
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The Mind Reels - Bipolarity Raw and Unfiltered
We Are Not Saved
Many college age girls lead lives of quiet desperation. The Mind Reels By: Fredrik deBoer Published: 2025 168 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The book follows Alice. Alice has severe bipolar disorder. This doesn’t come out until she’s at college. It’s entirely awful. Going from least to worst bad, we see: large weight fluctuations, social fallout, impulsive sex, being committed, psychotic and manic paranoia, and depression so deep she can’t make it to the bathroom. What's the author's angle? Normally I don’t talk about the angle for a fictional book, but this book deserves...
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Drink Your Way Sober - Blocked (Receptors) and Reported (Sobriety)
We Are Not Saved
Part memoir, part science writing, part history, and a lot of blaming her neighbor for her empties. Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol By: Katie Herzog Published: 2025 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? You may be familiar with Katie Herzog from Blocked and Reported, the podcast she hosts with Jesse Singal. Or you might have seen her byline on the Free Press. What I didn’t know (at least before she started promoting this book) is that she’s also a recovering alcoholic. I also didn’t know about the Sinclair Method for “extinguishing”...
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Replay - Groundhog Day in Novel Form, Sadly Without Any Groundhogs
We Are Not Saved
Replay By: Ken Grimwood Published: 1998 320 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A man dies and is sent back to his 18 year old self to relive his life over, and over, and over. Every time he dies he’s sent back. He dies in 1988, and awakens in 1963, so there’s a lot of discussion of those years (Kennedy Assassination, Moon landing, Iran Hostage crisis, etc.) Who should read this book? I came across a recommendation for this book on a Youtube channel that was doing a survey of all the movies that had functionally the same premise as Groundhog Day. And he included the book as sort...
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What Fresh Hell Awaits Us When SEO Is Replaced With AIO?
We Are Not Saved
It took 20 years from Bell inventing the telegraph before someone sent an ad with it. It took ~7 years for the first piece of email spam to be sent. Any bets on what it will look like for AI? Experimental AI Summary: I open with my own costly, underwhelming SEO experiment and the fact that I’ve mostly abandoned Google for LLMs, arguing that if AI chat replaces search then AIO (AI optimization) will replace SEO. I frame influence as “numerous / high-reputation / mentions,” recall the web’s shift from Yahoo’s directory to Google’s PageRank—where “reputation” changed...
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Modern Physics and Ancient Faith - Don’t Mess With the Strong Nuclear Force!
We Are Not Saved
If you had been placing bets 150 years ago around what physics would have to say about the existence of God, you would have lost a lot of money. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith By: Stephen M. Barr Published: 2003 312 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Barr takes all the discoveries of 20th-century physics, stuff like the Big Bang, quantum mechanics, the various forces, and argues that all of these things are more compatible with belief in God, specifically a traditional Judeo-Christian God, than with a belief in pure materialism. This is illustrated most succinctly in the...
info_outlineBanned in most prisons! That feels like a point in the book’s favor, but I’m not entirely sure I can articulate why.
The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature
By: Robert Greene
Published: 2021
464 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A “page a day” book collecting bits of wisdom from Robert Greene’s other books (Laws of Power, Art of Seduction, Strategies of War, etc.)
What's the author's angle?
As a general matter Greene is something of a Machiavellian figure, he’s going to tell it like it is, and give you the tools you really need to succeed in life. Or at least that’s his claim. I generally find his approach to be refreshing, but there are also moments when I would say he takes things too far and dispenses advice that’s counterproductive.
Who should read this book?
If you’re one of the small number of people who likes to have a page of the day book as a way of marking the time from January 1 to December 31, this is an average entry in this very niche genre. But as the genre is not particularly large, any example might be welcome.
If you’ve never done a page a day book I would probably start with Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom. I thought it was quite good. Also, there’s an argument to be made for it being the first such book chronologically. (It’s the earliest example of a devotional book that wasn’t rigidly sectarian.) Finally, it was banned by the Soviets, which immediately gives it ten extra points in my book.
Specific thoughts: Some good advice, some okay advice and a few pieces of actively bad advice