Robert Greene - The Laws of Human Nature - Talks at Google

[APPLAUSE] ROBERT GREENE:

[APLAUSOS] ROBERT GREENE:

Thank you so much for coming. I've been a big fan of Google since way back since
the late '90s.
Muchas gracias por venir. He sido un gran admirador de Google desde finales de los
90.

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.
Incluso escribí una publicación de blog hace muchos años comparando Google con la
guerra de Napoleón Bonaparte y Sun Tzu. Así que he sido un gran fan durante años. Y
siempre ha sido un gran honor para mí hablar de Google. Esta es mi tercera charla
de Google. Así que muchas gracias por esta oportunidad. Realmente lo aprecio.

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.
Ahora, hoy, los llevaré a todos dentro de mi último libro, "Las leyes de la
naturaleza humana", porque creo que tiene el potencial de cambiar su vida, de
cambiar realmente su forma de ver el mundo.

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.
Pero quiero comenzar contándoles una historia que cuento en este libro. Y la
historia trata de un hombre llamado John Blunt, un destacado hombre de negocios
inglés de principios del siglo XVIII.

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.
Ahora el Sr. Blunt era un director principal de una empresa llamada South Sea
Company. Y básicamente, en ese momento, el gobierno inglés tenía deudas masivas,
más que cualquier otro país en la historia, por financiar todas las guerras que
habían estado peleando.

It was basically valued at around 31 million pounds, which was enormous. And the
South Sea Company basically managed this debt in exchange for having a monopoly on
all trade in South America. But John Blunt, he came from the lower classes, and he
was an extremely ambitious man.
Básicamente, estaba valorado en alrededor de 31 millones de libras, lo cual era
enorme. Y la South Sea Company básicamente manejó esta deuda a cambio de tener el
monopolio de todo el comercio en América del Sur. Pero John Blunt, provenía de las
clases bajas y era un hombre extremadamente ambicioso.

His motto in life was, "Think big." And so in 1719, he came up with an idea for a
business idea that was worthy of this motto and that would earn him everlasting
fame.
Su lema en la vida era, "Piensa en grande". Y así, en 1719, se le ocurrió una idea
para un negocio que era digno de este lema y que le daría fama eterna.
The idea was that the South Sea Company would completely take over this $31
million.
La idea era que la South Sea Company se hiciera cargo por completo de estos $ 31
millones.

They would pay the government with some money for that right. And what they would
do is they would take this money, and they would privatize it, and they would turn
it into a commodity. And they would share cells of the debt -- shares of this
debt-- to the public, 100 pounds equaling one share in the South Sea Company.
Ellos le pagarían al gobierno con algo de dinero por ese derecho. Y lo que harían
es que tomarían este dinero, lo privatizarían y lo convertirían en una mercancía. Y
compartirían células de la deuda -- partes de esta deuda-- con el público, 100
libras equivalentes a una acción en la South Sea Company.

And the idea was that if they turned a nice profit, they would be able to pay down
the English enormous debts.
Y la idea era que si obtenían una buena ganancia, podrían pagar las enormes deudas
de los ingleses.

They would be able to make a nice profit for themselves. And they would take some
of that money and pay very nice dividends to people who invested in it.
Serían capaces de obtener una buena ganancia por sí mismos. Y tomarían parte de ese
dinero y pagarían muy buenos dividendos a las personas que invirtieran en él.

So it seemed like a win-win. How could this lose? And so they initiated this in
about May of 1719. And it took off. People didn't really understand it, but they
thought it was an amazing idea.
Así que parecía un ganar-ganar. ¿Cómo podría perder esto? Y así iniciaron esto
alrededor de mayo de 1719. Y despegó. La gente realmente no lo entendió, pero
pensaron que era una idea increíble.

It was their patriotic duty to invest in this. And quickly, the share prices rose,
within a month to 200 pounds a share, within two months to 300 pounds a share. The
King of England, King George I, plopped down 100,000 pounds of his own money into
the scheme. People were going crazy. Servants and maids were taking their life
savings and investing it and cashing out and making a fortune. One day, this woman,
who was an aristocrat, very wealthy, was in the theater. And she looked up, and she
saw her former maid occupy a seat, a balcony, a box in the theater that was much
more lavish and expensive than her own. It was like things were going upside down.
Era su deber patriótico invertir en esto. Y rápidamente, los precios de las
acciones subieron, en un mes a 200 libras por acción, en dos meses a 300 libras por
acción. El rey de Inglaterra, el rey Jorge I, invirtió 100.000 libras de su propio
dinero en el esquema. La gente se estaba volviendo loca. Los sirvientes y las
sirvientas estaban tomando los ahorros de toda su vida e invirtiéndolos y cobrando
y haciendo una fortuna. Un día, esta mujer, que era una aristócrata, muy rica,
estaba en el teatro. Y miró hacia arriba, y vio a su ex doncella ocupar un asiento,
un balcón, un palco en el teatro mucho más lujoso y caro que el suyo. Era como si
las cosas fueran al revés.

People were going crazy. But about six months into the scheme or seven months into
the scheme, Mr. Blunt started getting an uneasy feeling. Basically, what he was
running was a glorified Ponzi scheme.
La gente se estaba volviendo loca. Pero aproximadamente a los seis o siete meses
del esquema, el Sr. Blunt comenzó a tener una sensación de inquietud. Básicamente,
lo que estaba ejecutando era un esquema Ponzi glorificado.

The money that people were investing in the South Sea Company, he was actually
sending back to them in the form of dividends to entice more and more investors.
El dinero que la gente estaba invirtiendo en la South Sea Company, en realidad él
se los estaba devolviendo en forma de dividendos para atraer a más y más
inversores.

But if at some point, people panicked and stopped buying shares, the whole thing
would collapse.
Pero si en algún momento la gente entrara en pánico y dejara de comprar acciones,
todo colapsaría.

So he had to keep trying, stoking interest in it, and giving people even better and
better and better terms of investing in it.
Así que, él tenía que seguir intentándolo, avivando el interés y dando a la gente
condiciones cada vez mejores para invertir en él.

But finally, the panic that he worried about occurred in September of 1720, and the
whole thing collapsed in the most spectacular fashion.
Pero finalmente, el pánico que le preocupaba se produjo en septiembre de 1720, y
todo se derrumbó de la manera más espectacular.

Thousands of English people lost their life savings. Hundreds of people committed
suicide, including Mr. Blunt's nephew.
Miles de ingleses perdieron los ahorros de toda su vida. Cientos de personas se
suicidaron, incluido el sobrino del Sr. Blunt.

It's estimated that it took the English government over a century to recover from
this debacle. And this was the everlasting fame
that, ironically, John Blunt earned as the initiator of the infamous South Sea
Bubble.
Se estima que el gobierno inglés tardó más de un siglo en recuperarse de esta
debacle. Y esta fue la fama eterna
que, irónicamente, John Blunt se ganó como iniciador de la infame Burbuja de los
Mares del Sur.

Now many think famous Englishmen had invested in this, including writers,
architects, politicians, etcetera, but none more famous than the great Sir Isaac
Newton, the greatest scientist of his age and one of the most brilliant men that
ever lived.
Ahora, muchos piensan que ingleses famosos han invertido en esto, incluidos
escritores, arquitectos, políticos, etcétera, pero ninguno más famoso que el gran
Sir Isaac Newton, el científico más grande de su época y uno de los hombres más
brillantes que jamás haya existido.

When the scheme started, he took his own life savings, 7,000 pounds, and he put it
into the South Sea Company.
Cuando comenzó el esquema, él tomó los ahorros de toda su vida, 7,000 libras, y los
puso en la South Sea Company.

And he watched as it quickly doubled and then trebled to nearly 20,000 pounds.
Y observó cómo rápidamente se duplicó y luego se triplicó a casi 20,000 libras.

Mr. Newton realized that what goes up could easily go down. So he cashed out, and
he collected his 20,000 pounds.
El Sr. Newton se dio cuenta de que lo que sube podría bajar fácilmente. Así que
cobró y recogió sus 20.000 libras.

But in August of 1720, as Blunt was giving out this incredibly favorable terms, and
Isaac Newton saw that other people had made much more money than his 20,000 pounds,
he decided he was going to take that money and reinvest all of it in the South Sea
Company. And he lost his entire savings a month later in the crash.
Pero en agosto de 1720, cuando Blunt estaba otorgando estos términos increíblemente
favorables, e Isaac Newton vio que otras personas habían ganado mucho más dinero
que sus 20,000 libras, decidió que tomaría ese dinero y lo reinvertiría todo en la
South Sea Company. Y perdió todos sus ahorros un mes después en la quiebra.

And here was a man, in his 70s at this point, who was reduced to near poverty.
Y aquí había un hombre, de unos 70 años en ese momento, que se vio reducido a casi
la pobreza.

And in the aftermath of this horrible event in his life, he had a quote that I am
particularly attracted to.
Y después de este horrible evento en su vida, tuvo una cita que me atrajo
particularmente.

He said, quote, "I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but I cannot
understand the madness of men," end quote.
Él dijo, cito: "Puedo calcular los movimientos de los cuerpos celestes, pero no
puedo entender la locura de los hombres", fin de la cita.

Here was this great genius who could understand the laws of gravity, the motions of
planets, and all sorts of other things. But when it came to himself, the closest
thing to him, he could not understand himself.
Aquí estaba este gran genio que podía entender las leyes de la gravedad, los
movimientos de los planetas y todo tipo de otras cosas. Pero cuando se trataba de
sí mismo, lo más cercano a él, no podía entenderse a sí mismo.

He couldn't understand the laws that govern human behavior.

No podía entender las leyes que gobiernan el comportamiento humano.

So now, come some 300 years later, more to the present time, and I'm -- me, Robert
Greene -- I'm working as a consultant to many powerful people in all sorts of
enterprises -- athletes, hip-hop artists, politicians, businesspeople.
Así que ahora, vengo unos 300 años después, más al presente, y yo - yo, Robert
Greene -- trabajo como consultor para muchas personas poderosas en todo tipo de
empresas, atletas, artistas del hip-hop, políticos, empresarios.

And they're coming to me, particularly after I wrote "The 48 Laws of Power," with
their own problems.
Y ellos vienen a mí, particularmente después de que escribí "Las 48 leyes del
poder", con sus propios problemas.

And these problems basically revolved around the fact that they couldn't control
the people that they were dealing with.
Y estos problemas giraban básicamente en torno al hecho de que ellos no podían
controlar a las personas con las que estaban tratando.

They didn't know how to handle them. There was one man who had partnered with some
guy who he thought was rather mild-mannered. And this man was in the process of
stealing the company from him.
Ellos no sabían cómo manejarlos. Había un hombre que se había asociado con un tipo
que pensó que era bastante afable. Y este hombre estaba en proceso de robarle la
compañía.

There were other people who had made really disastrous hires of lieutenants and
other people that were literally destroying their company and destroying their
lives.
Había otras personas que habían hecho contrataciones realmente desastrosas de
lugartenientes y otras personas que literalmente estaban destruyendo su empresa y
destruyendo sus vidas.
There was one gentleman who had had a board of directors that he lost complete
control over. There was another person who had started this product line that he
was certain was going to succeed. And then it failed miserably, and he blamed all
of his associates for not knowing how to execute these plans. I had one famous
musician who took all his investment, all of his savings and put it in the bitcoin
craze about four years ago. And he lost everything in that, quite similar to Sir
Isaac Newton.
Había un señor que había tenido una junta directiva sobre la que había perdido todo
el control. Había otra persona que había comenzado esta línea de productos que
estaba seguro de que iba a tener éxito. Y luego fracasó
estrepitosamente/miserablemente, y culpó a todos sus asociados por no saber cómo
ejecutar estos planes. Tuve un músico famoso que tomó toda su inversión, todos sus
ahorros y los puso en la locura del bitcoin hace unos cuatro años. Y lo perdió todo
en eso, bastante similar a Sir Isaac Newton.

And so what all of these people had in common was they were all, like Mr. Newton,
very brilliant in their fields. They could calculate the movements of global
markets, of very complicated economic things.
Y entonces, lo que todas estas personas tenían en común era que todos, como el Sr.
Newton, eran muy brillantes en sus campos. Podían calcular los movimientos de los
mercados globales, de cosas económicas muy complicadas.

But when it came to the basics of just dealing with people -- you would think the
most important skill you would have -- and in understanding themselves, they were
actually quite helpless.
Pero cuando se trataba de lo básico de simplemente tratar con la gente - se podría
pensar que la habilidad más importante que se tiene - y en la comprensión de sí
mismos, en realidad eran bastante impotentes.

And in the aftermath of all of these experiences that I was having -- rather
powerful experiences -- I also thought of myself.
Y como consecuencia de todas estas experiencias que estaba teniendo -- experiencias
bastante poderosas -- también pensé en mí mismo.

I thought of myself in the sense that I too had had many failures.
Pensé en mí mismo en el sentido de que yo también había tenido muchos fracasos.

I too had had problems dealing with people, particularly before I wrote "The 48
Laws of Power," problems that inspired that book. I too had made many mistakes. I
had violated law number one, never outshine the master, and I had been fired for
that.
Yo también había tenido problemas al tratar con la gente, particularmente antes de
escribir "Las 48 leyes del poder", problemas que inspiraron ese libro. Yo también
había cometido muchos errores. Había violado la ley número uno, nunca eclipsar al
maestro, y me habían despedido por ello.

So I was thinking about my own problems as well. And about seven years ago, I
decided to set out on a quest.
Así que yo también estaba pensando en mis propios problemas. Y hace unos siete
años, decidí emprender una búsqueda.

I was going to try to get at the root of all of these problems that these people
had and that I had.
Iba a tratar de llegar a la raíz de todos estos problemas que tenían estas personas
y que yo tenía.

And what I thought that the root of this problem was the basic ignorance or
misunderstanding of human nature, of the laws that govern human behavior, much like
Sir Isaac Newton was looking at the laws that govern the movement of stars. I was
going to write a book about this subject.
Y lo que pensé es que la raíz de este problema era la ignorancia básica o la
incomprensión de la naturaleza humana, de las leyes que rigen el comportamiento
humano, al igual que Sir Isaac Newton observaba las leyes que rigen el movimiento
de las estrellas. Iba a escribir un libro sobre este tema.

Because startlingly enough, this is a subject that we all need to know, because as
a social animal, we spend all of our time dealing with people.
Porque, sorprendentemente, este es un tema que todos necesitamos conocer, porque
como animal social, pasamos todo nuestro tiempo tratando con personas.

You can't succeed in this world -- I don't care how technically brilliant you are
in your field, how well you are at coding or whatever it is.
No puedes tener éxito en este mundo -- no importa lo brillante que seas
técnicamente en tu campo, lo bien que sepas codificar o lo que sea.

If you don't understand people, you're going to neutralize all of your powers. And
yet nobody was writing a book about this subject.
Si no entiendes a la gente, vas a neutralizar todos tus poderes. Y sin embargo,
nadie estaba escribiendo un libro sobre este tema.

So I determined I was going to be the one to do it.

Así que decidí que iba a ser yo quien lo hiciera.

And so I started devouring literature on the subject -- neuroscience, evolutionary

biology, psychology, psychoanalysis. And in the course of this research, I came
upon three kind of discoveries that were very fundamental, that sort of grounded
the book that came out of that.
Así que empecé a devorar literatura sobre el tema -- neurociencia, biología
evolutiva, psicología, psicoanálisis. Y en el transcurso de esta investigación, me
encontré con tres tipos de descubrimientos que eran muy fundamentales, que en
cierto modo fundamentaron el libro que surgió de eso.

1) The first one was I read that, in neuroscience, people estimate that 95% of
human behavior is unconscious.
1) El primero fue que leí que, en neurociencia, se estima que el 95% del
comportamiento humano es inconsciente.

In other words, 95% of what we do never reaches the level of consciousness.

En otras palabras, el 95% de lo que hacemos nunca llega al nivel de la conciencia.

We're not aware of what actually motivates our behavior. I thought this was rather
startling.
No somos conscientes de lo que realmente motiva nuestro comportamiento. Esto me
pareció bastante sorprendente.

It's as if we possess a stranger inside of ourselves who's governing our behavior.

Es como si poseyéramos un extraño dentro de nosotros que gobierna nuestro
comportamiento.

2) The second fact I uncovered was that there are many kind of forces that came
from our evolution hundreds of thousands and millions of years ago that are wired
into our brains and how we operate.
2) El segundo hecho que descubrí fue que hay muchos tipos de fuerzas que vinieron
de nuestra evolución hace cientos de miles y millones de años que están conectadas
a nuestros cerebros y a nuestra forma de operar.

And a lot of these things came about evolutionarily for very adaptive purposes for
where we were 500,000 years ago, but that don't have much purpose for where we are
right now in the 21st century.
Y muchas de estas cosas surgieron evolutivamente con fines muy adaptativos para
donde estábamos hace 500.000 años, pero que no tienen mucho propósito para donde
estamos ahora en el siglo XXI.

These elemental forces that are very primitive, I call human nature.
Estas fuerzas elementales que son muy primitivas, yo las llamo naturaleza humana.

These are the forces that basically determine a lot of what we do. And so much of
this very primitive stuff is actually intersecting us in the 21st century and
determining a lot of the problems that we're encountering now.
Estas son las fuerzas que básicamente determinan mucho de lo que hacemos. Y muchas
de estas cosas muy primitivas se cruzan con nosotros en el siglo XXI y determinan
muchos de los problemas que estamos encontrando ahora.

I'll go into that a little more later.

Voy a entrar en eso un poco más tarde.

3) The third thing I discovered is that, basically, the human brain that all of us
possess is remarkably similar -- each of us.
3) La tercera cosa que descubrí es que, básicamente, el cerebro humano que todos
poseemos es notablemente similar -- cada uno de nosotros.

In other words, there's very little difference between the brain you possess and
somebody in some other country who has a different cultural background.
En otras palabras, hay muy poca diferencia entre el cerebro que tú posees y el de
alguien de otro país que tiene un origen cultural diferente.

And the reason is that we all evolved from the same origins, the same source,
hundreds of thousands of years ago, well before the spreading out of humans all
around the globe. So the qualities, these forces that I'm talking about here and
now about human nature, they are all within all of us. They are governing all of
our behavior.
Y la razón es que todos evolucionamos a partir de los mismos orígenes, de la misma
fuente, hace cientos de miles de años, mucho antes de la expansión de los humanos
por todo el mundo. Así que las cualidades, estas fuerzas de las que estoy hablando
aquí y ahora sobre la naturaleza humana, están todas dentro de todos nosotros.
Gobiernan todo nuestro comportamiento.

Nobody is excepted from these laws.

Nadie está exceptuado de estas leyes.

And so as I started writing the book, I got kind of excited, and I kind of had a
weird sensation. It was making me understand myself
in a way that was making me a little bit uncomfortable. I was realizing some of the
dark, irrational qualities in myself, some of the sources of my own bad habits and
patterns.
Y así, cuando empecé a escribir el libro, me emocioné y tuve una sensación extraña.
Me estaba haciendo entender a mí mismo
de una manera que me hacía sentir un poco incómodo. Me estaba dando cuenta de
algunas de las cualidades oscuras e irracionales que hay en mí, algunas de las
fuentes de mis propios malos hábitos y patrones.

It was also making me very aware of the things that I was observing in the people
around me. And I started to sense that there's incredible power in this knowledge,
that it can help me break these habits, and it can help me get along with people on
a much higher level. But also, more importantly, at the time that I was writing
this book, a lot of strange things were going on.
También me estaba haciendo muy consciente de las cosas que observaba en la gente
que me rodeaba. Y empecé a sentir que hay un poder increíble en este conocimiento,
que puede ayudarme a romper estos hábitos, y puede ayudarme a llevarme bien con la
gente a un nivel mucho más alto. Pero también, más importante, en el momento en que
estaba escribiendo este libro, un montón de cosas extrañas estaban sucediendo.

There was the bitcoin craze. There was the whole transformation of social media
into this giant feeding ground for trolls, etcetera, and all the stuff that we've
seen happening in social media. A new president was elected -- and that was a very
strange experience -- and all the things that were going on around that and the
kind of tribalism in our politics and the heated nature of it. And I thought what I
was uncovering in this stuff about human nature is explaining, in many ways, all of
the stuff that I was witnessing. And I had this metaphor that I included in the
introduction to the book that came to me. And the metaphor was that human nature,
this stuff that I'm talking about that evolved very deep in our past, it's like a
puppet master, and we are the puppets. And it's kind of moving us around and making
us do things.
Estaba la locura del bitcoin. Estaba toda la transformación de las redes sociales
en este caldo de cultivo gigante para los trolls, etcétera, y todas las cosas que
hemos visto que suceden en las redes sociales. Un nuevo presidente fue elegido -- y
eso fue una experiencia muy extraña -- y todas las cosas que estaban pasando
alrededor de eso y el tipo de tribalismo en nuestra política y la naturaleza
acalorada de la misma. Y pensé que lo que estaba descubriendo en este material
sobre la naturaleza humana explica, en muchos sentidos, todas las cosas que estaba
presenciando. Y tuve esta metáfora que incluí en la introducción del libro que se
me ocurrió. Y la metáfora era que la naturaleza humana, esta cosa de la que estoy
hablando que evolucionó muy profundamente en nuestro pasado, es como un titiritero
(maestro de marionetas), y nosotros somos las marionetas. Y es como que ella nos
mueve y nos hace hacer cosas.

We're not aware that human nature is making us do these things. But the puppet
master is there. And we die, a new generation comes, and this puppet master is
going to move them around in the same way. And the only way to escape that is to
understand these laws, to understand what is really going on.
No somos conscientes de que la naturaleza humana nos obliga a hacer estas cosas.
Pero el titiritero (maestro de marionetas) está ahí. Y nosotros morimos, una nueva
generación viene, y este titiritero (maestro de marionetas) va a moverlos de la
misma manera. Y la única manera de escapar de eso es entender estas leyes, entender
lo que realmente está sucediendo.

So I want to take you now through some of these -- I told you about these kind of
powerful, primitive forces that intersect the modern.
Así que, quiero llevarte ahora a través de algunas de estas -- te hablé de este
tipo de fuerzas poderosas y primitivas que se cruzan con lo moderno.

I want to take you inside four of these forces that kind of inspire or ground many
of the chapters in the book.
Quiero llevarte dentro de cuatro de estas fuerzas que inspiran o fundamentan muchos
de los capítulos del libro.

1) And the first one has to do with chapter 1, which is basically the law of
irrationality. And the point of this chapter is that we like to think of ourselves
as these rational, thinking, very strategic creatures, when in point of fact, we
humans are deeply irrational.
1) Y la primera tiene que ver con el capítulo 1, que es básicamente la ley de la
irracionalidad. Y el punto de este capítulo es que nos gusta pensar en nosotros
mismos como estas criaturas racionales, pensantes y muy estratégicas, cuando en
realidad, los humanos somos profundamente irracionales.
And what I mean by that is that we are governed by our emotions more than anything
else, which explains the kind of madness that overcame even the great genius Isaac
Newton.
Y lo que quiero decir con esto es que estamos gobernados por nuestras emociones más
que por cualquier otra cosa, lo que explica el tipo de locura que superó incluso al
gran genio Isaac Newton.

And I referred to neuroscience once again to explain this kind of madness that
exists inside all of us.
Y me referí a la neurociencia una vez más para explicar este tipo de locura que
existe dentro de todos nosotros.

And basically, what neuroscience shows is that the human brain evolved.
Y básicamente, lo que la neurociencia muestra es que el cerebro humano evolucionó.

It's kind of like a ladder. The brain has different layers, literally going from
the bottom to the top. The bottom part of the brain is the oldest part. It is where
the autonomic functions that govern our hormones, et cetera. You move up, and then
there's the limbic system that governs our emotions. And at the very top is the
frontal neocortex that developed very recently.
Es una especie de escalera. El cerebro tiene diferentes capas, que van literalmente
de abajo hacia arriba. La parte inferior del cerebro es la más antigua. Es donde se
encuentran las funciones autonómicas que gobiernan nuestras hormonas, etc. Si
subes, está el sistema límbico que gobierna nuestras emociones. Y en la parte
superior está el neocórtex frontal que se desarrolló muy recientemente.

It's where our language and our reasoning powers came from. And what this means is
that these two parts of the brain, emotions and reasoning, are not in the same
area.
Es de donde nuestro lenguaje y nuestros poderes de razonamiento vinieron. Y lo que
esto significa es que estas dos partes del cerebro, las emociones y el
razonamiento, no están en la misma zona.

They're separated by other layers, and they don't communicate with each other.
Ellas están separadas por otras capas y no se comunican entre sí.

Now this is very powerful idea that I think we all need to understand. So emotions
are a very, very ancient system.
Esta es una idea muy poderosa que creo que todos necesitamos entender. Así que las
emociones son un sistema muy, muy antiguo.

Reptiles have a fear response. So this is something that goes back millions and
millions -- hundreds of millions -- of years. And basically, emotions originate as
a kind of hormonal nerve signal that is sent to the brain.
Los reptiles tienen una respuesta al miedo. Así que esto es algo que se remonta a
millones y millones - cientos de millones - de años. Y básicamente, las emociones
se originan como una especie de señal nerviosa hormonal que se envía al cerebro.

And these signals are much stronger than any of the signals that the frontal cortex
sends.
Y estas señales son mucho más fuertes que cualquiera de las señales que envía la
corteza frontal.

And what that means is emotions consume so much more of our attention than any kind
of thought.
Y lo que eso significa es que las emociones consumen mucho más de nuestra atención
que cualquier tipo de pensamiento.

They grab our attention more because they're involving these very powerful physical
forces.
Ellas captan nuestra atención más porque están involucrando estas fuerzas físicas
muy poderosas.

The other thing that comes from this is that, because they're in two different
parts of the brain, we don't really have access to our emotions. So it's very hard
for us to put our feelings into words.
La otra cosa que viene de esto es que, debido a que ellas están en dos partes
diferentes del cerebro, no tenemos realmente acceso a nuestras emociones. Así que
es muy difícil para nosotros poner nuestros sentimientos en palabras.

I don't know if you've ever experienced that. But the word 'depression' doesn't
really describe exactly sometimes the feeling of depression or the same with anger.
They're more complicated. There's something more going on. It's hard to verbalize
these emotions.
No sé si alguna vez has experimentado eso. Pero la palabra 'depresión' no describe
exactamente a veces el sentimiento de depresión o lo mismo con la ira. Son más
complicadas. Hay algo más en juego. Es difícil verbalizar estas emociones.

The other thing is we have no access to the source of our emotions.

La otra cosa es que no tenemos acceso a la fuente (origen) de nuestras emociones.

So we could be angry and depressed but not really know consciously why we're angry
or depressed.
Así que, podemos estar enfadados y deprimidos, pero sin saber realmente por qué
estamos enfadados o deprimidos.

And finally, because these are separated functions, we don't really realize to what
extent emotions are infecting our strategies, our plans, our ideas.
Y por último, como estas son funciones separadas, no nos damos cuenta de hasta qué
punto las emociones están infectando nuestras estrategias, nuestros planes,
nuestras ideas.

We don't realize how much the ideas that we have are being infiltrated by our
emotions.
No nos damos cuenta de hasta qué punto las ideas que tenemos están siendo
infiltradas por nuestras emociones.

And to make all of this more complicated and worse -- I don't mean to overload you
with all this information, excuse me -- our brains operate by simplifying
information.
Y para hacer todo esto más complicado y peor - no quiero sobrecargarte con toda
esta información, discúlpame - nuestro cerebro funciona simplificando la
información.

The human brain takes in so much stimuli in the course of a day that if we had to
sit there and look at all of that, we would go crazy. So the brain operates by
simplifying the material that we receive and tells us a story so that, for
instance, when you're feeling angry, your brain tells you you're angry because of
this person or that. You're depressed because of this event or that.
El cerebro humano recibe tantos estímulos en el transcurso de un día que si
tuviéramos que sentarnos a mirar todo eso, nos volveríamos locos. Así que el
cerebro funciona simplificando el material que recibimos y nos cuenta una historia,
de modo que, por ejemplo, cuando te sientes enfadado, tu cerebro te dice que estás
enfadado por esta persona o por aquella. Estás deprimido por este o aquel suceso.

But it's not necessarily the truth. There's often a disconnect between the two.
Pero eso no es necesariamente la verdad. A menudo hay una desconexión entre los
dos.
So -- excuse me.
Así que -- perdóname.

So for instance, when Sir Isaac Newton is having this issue with the South Sea
Bubble, and he decided-- the South Sea Company-- decides to pour all 20,000 pounds
back into an investment, his brain is telling him, "Isaac, this is a great idea.
Look at how much money you're going to make. The king invested in it. People are
making fortunes. It's a rational decision."
Así que, por ejemplo, cuando Sir Isaac Newton está teniendo este problema con la
Burbuja del Mar del Sur, y decidió - la South Sea Company - decide poner de nuevo
todas las 20.000 libras en una inversión, su cerebro le está diciendo: "Isaac, esta
es una gran idea. Mira cuánto dinero vas a hacer. El rey invirtió en ella. La gente
está haciendo fortunas. Es una decisión racional".

Whereas in fact, what was really motivating him was sheer greed. But the brain
wasn't telling him that. I tell the story in the book of a story that fascinated me
by a famous psychoanalyst named Heinz Kohut, who had a patient. And this patient
was a young man who had this pattern in life. He was getting involved with young
women in different relationships. There were four or five of them.
And he broke each one of them off several months or even several years into the
relationship.
Mientras que en realidad, lo que lo motivaba era la pura codicia. Pero el cerebro
no le decía eso. En el libro cuento una historia que me fascinó de un famoso
psicoanalista llamado Heinz Kohut, que tenía un paciente. Y este paciente era un
hombre joven que tenía este patrón en la vida. Él se involucraba con mujeres
jóvenes en diferentes relaciones. Había cuatro o cinco de ellas.
Y él rompió con cada una de ellas varios meses o incluso varios años después de la
relación.

He would say, "Well, this woman, I didn't trust her. I don't think she was going to
be faithful. This other woman, she wasn't smart enough. She wasn't up to my level.
This other woman, I think she was just out for my money."
Él diría: "Bueno, esta mujer, no confiaba en ella. No creo que vaya a ser fiel.
Esta otra mujer, no era lo suficientemente inteligente. No estaba a mi nivel. Esta
otra mujer, creo que sólo quería mi dinero".

On and on, he would break the relationship off first. And in discussing with this
patient, Kohut discovered that this young man had a mother who was very kind of
narcissistic.
Una y otra vez, él rompía la relación primero. Y al hablar con este paciente, Kohut
descubrió que este joven tenía una madre muy narcisista.

She never quite paid very much attention to him. And so this was a very painful
experience for him that he didn't really remember. But basically, he experienced
her narcissism as a form of abandonment, as if she had left him. And so his pattern
in life was to always be the one abandoning other people, abandoning women before
they could abandon him, 'cause he could not relive that experience again.
Ella nunca le prestó mucha atención. Y por eso fue una experiencia muy dolorosa
para él que no recordaba realmente. Pero basicamente, él experimentaba su
narcisismo como una forma de abandono, como si ella lo hubiera dejado. Y así, su
patrón en la vida era ser siempre el que abandonaba a otras personas, abandonando a
las mujeres antes de que ellas pudieran abandonarle a él, porque no podía volver a
vivir esa experiencia.

But his brain wasn't telling him that. His brain was telling him this woman was not
good. She wasn't smart.
Pero su cerebro no le decía eso. Su cerebro le decía que esta mujer no era buena.
Que no era inteligente.
She wasn't worthy, et cetera. He had no access to the actual source of the patterns
of behavior in his life. And I ask you to think of the possibility this could be
happening to you.
Que no era digna, etc. Él no tenía acceso a la fuente real de los patrones de
comportamiento en su vida. Y te pido que pienses en la posibilidad de que esto te
esté pasando a ti.

There could be things in your life, things that are getting you angry or frustrated
or depressed. And there could be something very much rooted in the first three or
four years of your life that you have no idea about that is actually motivating
your behavior in the present. In economics, writers like Daniel Kahneman -- I don't
know if you're familiar with him -- they talk about the affective heuristic,
affective meaning emotional.
Podría haber cosas en tu vida, cosas que te hacen enfadar o frustrar o deprimir. Y
podría haber algo muy arraigado en los tres o cuatro primeros años de tu vida de lo
que no tienes ni idea y que en realidad está motivando tu comportamiento en el
presente. En economía, escritores como Daniel Kahneman - no sé si estás
familiarizado con él - hablan de la heurística afectiva, afectiva significa
emocional.

Now what that means is what determines people's decisions in economics to buy
something or invest in something is not rational but is actually based on emotions.
Lo que esto significa es que lo que determina las decisiones de la gente en
economía para comprar algo o invertir en algo no es racional, sino que se basa en
las emociones.

This is a recent discovery in economics. And most of us are not aware of it.
Este es un descubrimiento reciente en economía. Y la mayoría de nosotros no somos
conscientes de ello.

We think when we buy a product, we've done our research. We know what we're doing.
Nosotros pensamos que cuando compramos un producto, hemos investigado. Sabemos lo
que hacemos.

We bought it for this, that, or the other reason. And because we're not aware of
how emotions are governing our purchases or economic behavior, this gives marketing
people incredible room to manipulate us.
Lo compramos por esta, aquella o la otra razón. Y como no somos conscientes de cómo
las emociones gobiernan nuestras compras o nuestro comportamiento económico, esto
da a la gente de marketing un margen increíble para manipularnos.

So they've done all the research on human nature.

Así que, ellos han hecho toda la investigación sobre la naturaleza humana.

And they know that putting a little ping sound in your smartphone at a certain
frequency has a very hypnotic effect. And so you're drawn to constantly check your
smartphones.
Y ellos saben que poner un pequeño sonido de ping en tu smartphone a una
determinada frecuencia tiene un efecto muy hipnótico. Y por lo tanto uno se siente
atraído a comprobar constantemente su teléfono inteligente.

You think it's because of your own desire, but it's actually you're, in some ways,
being hypnotized.
Crees que es por tu propio deseo, pero en realidad estás, en cierto modo, siendo
hipnotizado.

They know that the color red will grab your attention in a way that no other color
will.
Ellos saben que el color rojo llamará tu atención de una manera que ningún otro
color lo hará.

So they put things that will -- they know how to -- manipulate your attention by
using colors.
Así que ponen cosas que -- ellos saben cómo -- manipularán tu atención usando
colores.

There's the exposure factor that they discuss. So they know, through lots of
research, that if someone is exposed to something first, they're much more likely
to buy it.
Está el factor de exposición que ellos discuten. Así que saben, a través de muchas
investigaciones, que si alguien está expuesto a algo primero, es mucho más probable
que lo compre.

The same thing goes with presidents that we elect or candidates. If we're exposed
to them, if we know them, just by the name, just by the recognition, we're prone to
vote for them.
Lo mismo ocurre con los presidentes que elegimos o los candidatos. Si estamos
expuestos a ellos, si los conocemos, sólo por el nombre, sólo por el
reconocimiento, somos propensos a votar por ellos.

Back in the day, when people still used to buy things in shops and stores, these
people knew that if a shop assistant lightly touched you on the arm in a very non-
threatening way, the chances of you buying the product went up 50%, 60%.
Antes, cuando la gente todavía compraba cosas en las tiendas y almacenes, esta
gente sabía que si un dependiente te tocaba ligeramente en el brazo de forma no
amenazante, las posibilidades de que compraras el producto aumentaban un 50%, un
60%.

And so they would teach their employees to do this, on and on and on. So the lesson
here is that we're not aware of all of these things that are going on, of how much
our emotions are actually governing and determining so much of our behavior.
Y así enseñaban a sus empleados a hacerlo, una y otra vez. Así que la lección aquí
es que no somos conscientes de todas estas cosas que están sucediendo, de lo mucho
que nuestras emociones están realmente gobernando y determinando gran parte de
nuestro comportamiento.

And the solution that I give in my book, the solution for us humans to actually
become rational like we imagine ourselves to be, is to become aware of this
phenomenon -- first, to not think that you're rational, to see the process.
Y la solución que doy en mi libro, la solución para que nosotros los humanos seamos
realmente racionales como nos imaginamos, es tomar conciencia de este fenómeno --
primero, no pensar que eres racional, ver el proceso.

So it's not easy. But when you're feeling anger or you're feeling depressed, don't
just act on it and mope or lash out.
Así que no es fácil. Pero cuando sientas rabia o te sientas deprimido, no actúes
sobre ello y te deprimas o arremetas.

But why? Ask yourself why. What is going on here? Could there be something else
going on that I'm not really thinking of? Is there something deeper going on? And
you may not get to the answer.
Pero, ¿por qué? Pregúntate por qué. ¿Qué está pasando aquí? ¿Podría haber algo más
en lo que no estoy pensando realmente? ¿Hay algo más profundo ocurriendo? Y puede
que no llegues a la respuesta.

You may not uncover that thing in your early childhood. But just in asking that
question, you're going to create a little bit of space between the signal you're
getting from your brain and your reaction.
Puede que no descubras esa cosa en tu infancia. Pero sólo al hacer esa pregunta,
vas a crear un poco de espacio entre la señal que estás recibiendo de tu cerebro y
tu reacción.

And that space, that time, that 10 minutes, that one hour that you don't react is
actually what's going to make you more rational person in the long run.
Y ese espacio, ese tiempo, esos 10 minutos, esa hora en la que no reaccionas es en
realidad lo que te va a hacer una persona más racional a largo plazo.

You'll be able to question, well, why am I really interested in buying this

product? Is it because I'm being manipulated, or is this something that I really
need?
Serás capaz de preguntar, bueno, ¿por qué estoy realmente interesado en comprar
este producto? ¿Es porque me están manipulando o es algo que realmente necesito?

I talk a lot in my consulting with people who have to make important decisions.
Hablo mucho en mi consulta con personas que tienen que tomar decisiones
importantes.

I can bet you that 95% of your decision, the strategy you're coming up with, is
infected with emotions.
Puedo apostar a que el 95% de su decisión, la estrategia que se les ocurre, está
infectada de emociones.

I call it the rosy scenario.

Yo lo llamo el escenario de color de rosa.

You're always imagining the best case that will emerge from this. But you're not
seeing all the potential pitfalls.
Siempre estás imaginando el mejor caso que surgirá de esto. Pero no estás viendo
todos los peligros potenciales.

So you want to subtract all of these emotional elements before you make your
decision. Going through this process is what will, in the end, finally make you
rational.
Así que quieres eliminar / sustraer (separar) todos estos elementos emocionales
antes de tomar tu decisión. Pasar por este proceso es lo que, al final, te hará ser
racional.

Talking about how emotions govern us, there's obviously something that emerged in
our deep past that's not really adapted to where we're living now.
Hablando de cómo nos gobiernan las emociones, es obvio que hay algo que surgió en
nuestro pasado profundo que no está realmente adaptado al lugar donde vivimos
ahora.

But there is a power that we evolved from in our deep past that is actually
extremely well-adapted to where we are now and will be very valuable for us.
Pero hay un poder que evolucionó en nuestro pasado profundo que en realidad está
muy bien adaptado a donde estamos ahora y será muy valioso para nosotros.

And that quality is empathy, which is a major theme of my new book. And empathy is
basically the ability, the incredible human ability, to get inside the perspective
and the points of view of other people, to literally see inside how other people
are seeing the world.
Y esa cualidad es la empatía, que es uno de los temas principales de mi nuevo
libro. Y la empatía es básicamente la capacidad, la increíble capacidad humana, de
entrar en la perspectiva y los puntos de vista de otras personas, de ver
literalmente dentro de cómo otras personas están viendo el mundo.
And this is equality of power that our ancient ancestors, well before the invention
of language, invented as a way to increase their ability to understand the people
in the group or the tribe and to work more closely together.
Y esta es la igualdad de poder que nuestros antiguos ancestros, mucho antes de la
invención del lenguaje, inventaron como una forma de aumentar su capacidad de
entender a la gente en el grupo o la tribu y trabajar más estrechamente.

And I say in my book "Mastery" and in this new book that I imagine these early
ancestors were nearly telepathic in their ability to sense what other people were
feeling and thinking. I call this visceral empathy.
Y digo en mi libro " Maestría " y en este nuevo libro que imagino que estos
primeros ancestros eran casi telepáticos en su capacidad de sentir lo que otras
personas estaban sintiendo y pensando. Lo llamo empatía visceral.

But we humans have another quality that kind of counters this and renders this
power that we all possess, kind of neutralizes that. And this quality is our self-
absorption, our latent narcissism.
Pero nosotros, los humanos, tenemos otra cualidad que contrarresta esto y hace que
este poder que todos poseemos, lo neutralice. Y esta cualidad es nuestro
ensimismamiento, nuestro narcisismo latente.

And this quality isn't something that is necessarily wired into our brains, but
comes about because of how we're raised, how we're socialized. I'm trying to make
the point that we are all somewhat narcissistic, that we're all on that spectrum.
Y esta cualidad no es algo que esté necesariamente grabado en nuestros cerebros,
sino que se produce por la forma en que nos educan, por la forma en que nos
socializan. Trato de decir que todos somos algo narcisistas, que todos estamos en
ese espectro.

The origins of narcissism, quite simply, are that we humans spend an inordinate
amount of time being raised by our parents, much longer than any other animal. So
we form a much deeper attachment to our mother and to our father.
El origen del narcisismo es, sencillamente, que los humanos pasamos una cantidad de
tiempo desmesurada siendo criados por nuestros padres, mucho más que cualquier otro
animal. Así que formamos un apego mucho más profundo a nuestra madre y a nuestro
padre.

But a point is inevitably reached in this process where that attention slackens,
and the parent distances themselves from us.
Pero, inevitablemente, se llega a un punto en este proceso en el que esa atención
afloja, y el padre se aleja de nosotros.

And it's very emotionally disturbing.

Y eso es muy perturbador desde el punto de vista emocional.

We feel like we're not getting any more love or attention from our parents.
Sentimos que no recibimos más amor o atención de nuestros padres.

And the solution that most people create in this is to create a self, a self-image
that they can retreat to, that they can love and esteem, and so that in these
moments when parents aren't giving us love and attention and recognition, we can
withdraw into ourselves and feel that we are worthy, that we are OK, that we can
love ourselves.
Y la solución que la mayoría de la gente crea (encuentra?) en esto es crear un yo,
una imagen de sí mismo en la que puedan refugiarse (retirarse), que puedan amar y
estimar, y para que en estos momentos en que los padres no nos dan amor y atención
y reconocimiento, podamos refugiarnos (retirarnos) en nosotros mismos y sentir que
somos dignos, que estamos bien, que podemos amarnos a nosotros mismos.
And this self-love operates as a kind of thermostat. So when we're feeling
depressed or not recognized, it kind of raises our moods up so we don't fall too
deeply down into this depression.
Y este amor propio funciona como una especie de termostato. Así que cuando nos
sentimos deprimidos o no reconocidos, nos levanta el ánimo para que no caigamos
demasiado en la depresión.

And what's part of this self-love is that we pour a lot of libidinal love energy --
desire -- into the self that we create.
Y lo que forma parte de este amor propio es que vertemos mucha energía de amor
libidinal -deseo- en el yo que creamos.

We become fascinated with our own tastes, our own desires of who we are.
Nos fascinamos con nuestros propios gustos, nuestros propios deseos de lo que
somos.

And then we go searching for other people who are similar to us. And people have
noticed in studies that we tend to fall in love with people who either look like us
or have very similar ideas or values to us, so that we're attracted and drawn to
people who reflect who we are, which is another aspect of our narcissism.
Y luego vamos en busca de otras personas que son similares a nosotros. Y la gente
ha notado en los estudios que tendemos a enamorarnos de personas que se parecen a
nosotros o que tienen ideas o valores muy similares a los nuestros, de modo que nos
sentimos atraídos y atraídas por personas que reflejan lo que somos, que es otro
aspecto de nuestro narcisismo.

And we see that on social media, where people glom onto those who are most--
creating kind of like a narcissistic tribe.
Y lo vemos en las redes sociales, donde la gente se aferra a aquellos que son
más... creando una especie de tribu narcisista.

Now obviously, there are people who fall deeper into this, types that I call deep
or toxic narcissists.
Ahora, obviamente, hay personas que caen más profundamente en esto, tipos que yo
llamo narcisistas profundos o tóxicos.

And what happens with them is they never develop that inner thermostat.
Y lo que ocurre con ellos es que nunca desarrollan ese termostato interior.

Because something was broken in their relationship with their parents, they were
never able to develop enough self-love.
Porque algo se rompió en su relación con sus padres, ellos nunca pudieron
desarrollar suficiente amor propio.

And so the only way they can get that feeling, that sense of self-worth and
recognition when they start getting lower, when things aren't going well, is to act
out and get attention from other people instead of from themselves.
Así que la única manera de conseguir ese sentimiento, esa sensación de autoestima y
reconocimiento cuando empiezan a bajar, cuando las cosas no van bien, es actuar y
conseguir la atención de otras personas en lugar de la suya propia.

So they become dramatic, and they kind of know how to get attention when they were
children, etcetera.
Asi que se vuelven dramaticos, y de alguna manera saben como llamar la atencion
cuando eran niños, etcetera.

And so that's their only way of solving this kind of emptiness inside themselves.
Y esa es su única manera de resolver este tipo de vacío dentro de ellos mismos.
And such people, such deep narcissists, can actually go pretty far in life, because
as children, they developed a lot of flair and charisma.
Y esas personas, esos narcisistas profundos, pueden llegar muy lejos en la vida,
porque cuando eran niños, desarrollaron mucho talento y carisma.

And if they're talented, they can become leaders. They can become CEOs of
businesses because of this kind of charisma that they have. But then they hit a
wall, because they always need more and more and more attention.
Y si tienen talento, pueden convertirse en líderes. Pueden llegar a ser directores
generales de empresas debido a este tipo de carisma que tienen. Pero luego chocan
con un muro, porque siempre necesitan más y más y más atención.

They really don't know and understand the people they're dealing with, because
they're using them as objects for their own benefit.
Realmente no conocen ni entienden a las personas con las que tratan, porque las
utilizan como objetos para su propio beneficio.

And they can't learn from their mistakes, because for a deep narcissist to admit
that they made a mistake is too painful.
Y no pueden aprender de sus errores, porque para un narcisista profundo admitir que
se ha equivocado es demasiado doloroso.

So even though they can become the CEO of an enormous tech company-- and I'm not
going to name names here-- they're inevitably going to hit a wall because of this.
So the point I'm trying to make is that we are all on that spectrum. We all have
that potential. And in moments when we feel depressed or circumstances aren't going
our way, we notice that we can become more and more self-absorbed and that we have
this potential to fall even deeper into ourselves. So I want us to get over this
notion that the narcissist is always the other person and not me.
Así que aunque puedan llegar a ser el CEO de una enorme compañía tecnológica -y no
voy a dar nombres aquí- inevitablemente van a chocar con una pared debido a esto.
Así que el punto que estoy tratando de hacer es que todos estamos en ese espectro.
Todos tenemos ese potencial. Y en los momentos en que nos sentimos deprimidos o las
circunstancias no van como queremos, nos damos cuenta de que podemos ensimismarnos
cada vez más y de que tenemos ese potencial para caer aún más dentro de nosotros
mismos. Así que quiero que superemos esta noción de que el narcisista es siempre la
otra persona y no yo.

We are all on the spectrum. The solution here is simple.

Todos estamos en el espectro. La solución es sencilla.

First, we have to admit this, that we are narcissists. The person that says, "Oh my
god, I'm not a narcissist. No, not me," that's exactly a sign of narcissism right
there. They are the exception.
Primero, tenemos que admitir esto, que somos narcisistas. La persona que dice: "Oh,
Dios mío, no soy un narcisista. No, yo no", eso es exactamente un signo de
narcisismo allí mismo. Ellos son la excepción.

"No, not me. Look at me. I'm not a narcissist." The second thing you have to
realize is that you're basically a functional narcissist. And that energy that goes
into yourself can literally be turned outward and can be transformed into empathy,
which is one of the chapters in my book.
"No, yo no. Mírame. No soy un narcisista". La segunda cosa de la que tienes que
darte cuenta es que eres básicamente un narcisista funcional. Y esa energía que va
hacia ti mismo puede literalmente volverse hacia afuera y puede transformarse en
empatía, que es uno de los capítulos de mi libro.

And what I mean by that is we turned all of that libidinal desire into ourselves.
Y lo que quiero decir con esto es que convertimos todo ese deseo libidinal en
nosotros mismos.

We became fascinated with ourselves, our thoughts, our ideas. We need to turn that
outward into people that we're looking at. So when you're in a conversation with a
friend or whatever, chances are you're not really listening to them.
Nos fascinamos con nosotros mismos, nuestros pensamientos, nuestras ideas. Tenemos
que volcar eso hacia afuera, hacia las personas que estamos mirando. Así que cuando
estás en una conversación con un amigo o lo que sea, lo más probable es que no los
estés escuchando realmente.

You're not paying attention. You're on your phone or you're somewhere else because
you're more interested in your own ideas
and your own problems. That's where your energy and fascination goes. But you must
realize that the people you're dealing with
are weirder and more interesting than you could ever imagine. I like to tell
people, think of the people you deal with as if they were characters in a movie. I
had a job once where I was really depressed.
No estás prestando atención. Estás en tu teléfono o estás en otro lugar porque
estás más interesado en tus propias ideas y en tus propios problemas. Ahí es donde
va tu energía y tu fascinación. Pero debes darte cuenta de que la gente con la que
tratas son más raras y más interesantes de lo que podrías imaginar. Me gusta
decirle a la gente que piense en las personas con las que trata como si fueran
personajes de una película. Una vez tuve un trabajo en el que estaba muy deprimido.

People, I thought, were really awful. And I imagined that they were actually
figures in Greek mythology, and I had to figure out which one each one of them was.
And it helped me a lot, because now I had to think about their lives and their
childhoods and what made them the way they were. So the people you're dealing with
are much more interesting than you imagine. And so if you can turn that energy
around and you can start placing yourself in their shoes, it will go a long way to
taking that self-absorption
and turning it outward. We're all working in much more diverse workplaces.
La gente, pensaba, era realmente horrible. Y me imaginaba que eran en realidad
figuras de la mitología griega, y tenía que averiguar cuál era cada una de ellas. Y
eso me ayudó mucho, porque ahora tenía que pensar en sus vidas y en su infancia y
en lo que les hacía ser como eran. Así que la gente con la que tratas es mucho más
interesante de lo que imaginas. Y si puedes dar la vuelta a esa energía y puedes
empezar a ponerte en su lugar, eso te ayudará mucho a tomar ese ensimismamiento
y volviéndolo hacia afuera. Todos trabajamos en lugares de trabajo mucho más
diversos.

50 years ago, when my father had his job, it was all basically white men in his
office.
Hace 50 años, cuando mi padre tenía su trabajo, todo eran hombres blancos en su
oficina.

We don't have that anymore. People come from all different-- men and women-- all
different cultural backgrounds.
Eso ya no existe. La gente viene de todos los diferentes - hombres y mujeres -
todos los diferentes orígenes culturales.

And in this diverse workplace, it's actually fascinating to try and get into the
backgrounds and the mindsets of this diverse world
and get outside yourself and get inside what other people are experiencing and try
to figure out their culture that they came from. It's like therapy. So this is an
incredible power empathy that lies latent in all of you but that must be cultivated
and developed. And I give you many lessons in the book on how to do that.
Y en este lugar de trabajo diverso, es realmente fascinante tratar de entrar en los
trasfondos/antecedentes y las mentalidades de este mundo diverso y salir de ti
mismo y entrar en lo que otras personas están experimentando y tratar de entender
su cultura de la que vienen. Es como una terapia. Así que se trata de un poder
increíble, la empatía, que está latente en todos ustedes, pero esa hay que
cultivarla y desarrollarla. Y en el libro te doy muchas lecciones sobre cómo
hacerlo.

Now another law of human nature is that we humans have what I call a self-opinion,
an opinion about ourselves. And people who have done studies have shown that that
opinion is generally more elevated than the reality. So we tend to think of
ourselves as intelligent.
Ahora bien, otra ley de la naturaleza humana es que los humanos tenemos lo que yo
llamo una autoopinión, una opinión sobre nosotros mismos. Y las personas que han
realizado estudios han demostrado que esa opinión es generalmente más elevada que
la realidad. Así que tendemos a pensar que somos inteligentes.

At least in our field, we're intelligent. We like to think of ourselves as

autonomous.
Al menos en nuestro campo, somos inteligentes. Nos gusta pensar que somos
autónomos.

We just make our own decisions. People don't tell us what to do. I'm an independent
person.
Tomamos nuestras propias decisiones. La gente no nos dice lo que tenemos que hacer.
Soy una persona independiente.

And we tell ourselves that we're basically good, moral people, that we're nice and
polite, that we're team players, that we
get along with other people. But an equal law of human nature is that this sunny,
kind of positive portrait is actually covering up and masking a dark side, what
psychologist Carl Jung called the shadow, and that every human being has a dark
side, has a shadow.
Y nos decimos a nosotros mismos que somos básicamente personas buenas y morales,
que somos amables y educados, que jugamos en equipo, que nos llevamos bien con
otras personas. Pero una ley igual a la de la naturaleza humana es que este retrato
soleado y positivo en realidad está cubriendo y enmascarando un lado oscuro, lo que
el psicólogo Carl Jung llamó la sombra, y que todo ser humano tiene un lado oscuro,
tiene una sombra.

And this shadow is not something that's wired into our brains. It comes about how
we are raised as children.
Y esta sombra no es algo que esté grabada en nuestro cerebro. Surge de la forma en
que somos criados cuando somos niños.

Basically, as children, we come into this world as a kind of complete, natural

being.
Básicamente, como niños, venimos a este mundo como una especie de ser completo y
natural.

We have all kinds of emotions and feelings. We are mischievous.

Tenemos todo tipo de emociones y sentimientos. Somos traviesos.

We can love our parents one moment and then hate them the next. We can be that
sweet little angel one moment, and the next moment, we're burning with desires for
revenge, and we steal something from our brother or sister.
Podemos amar a nuestros padres un momento y al siguiente odiarlos. Podemos ser ese
dulce angelito un momento, y al siguiente arder en deseos de venganza, y robar algo
a nuestro hermano o hermana.
We were a complete being. We had a full range of emotions. But slowly, over time,
we have to sort of soften all of that.
Éramos un ser completo. Teníamos una gama completa de emociones. Pero poco a poco,
con el tiempo, tenemos que suavizar todo eso.

Our parents are all stressed out, and they're trying to get us to not act out so
much. They want us to be more angelic.
Nuestros padres están todos tensos / estresados e intentan que no exteriorizemos
tanto. Quieren que seamos más angelicales

And teachers, we had this pressure as well. So slowly, we feel this pressure to
kind of tamp down and disguise these sort of natural emotions that are inside all
of us.
Y los profesores, también tenemos esta presión. Así que, poco a poco, sentimos esta
presión para apaciguar y disfrazar este tipo de emociones naturales que están
dentro de todos nosotros.

And this energy that could be positive and negative, could be loving and
mischievous or vengeful at the same time, all of that-- the dark stuff-- goes into
what is called the shadow.
Y esta energía que podría ser positiva y negativa, podría ser amorosa y traviesa o
vengativa al mismo tiempo, todo eso -la cosa oscura- va a lo que se llama la
sombra.

It doesn't disappear. It stays with us as adults. And this shadow that you carry
with you, you're feeling tremendous amount of pressure to conceal it, 'cause you
want to present to everybody here at Google an image of yourself as this sweet,
angelic child,
this person that's wonderful. And it's pressure. How do I keep this dark side from
coming out?
No desaparece. Permanece con nosotros como adultos. Y esta sombra que llevas
contigo, sientes una tremenda presión para ocultarla, porque quieres presentar a
todos aquí en Google una imagen de ti mismo como este dulce y angelical niño, esta
persona que es maravillosa. Y es una presión. ¿Cómo evito que salga este lado
oscuro?

Well, it comes out in certain moments, particularly when we're feeling stress, when
we're feeling moments when we're not getting enough attention and recognition from
other people.
Bueno, sale en ciertos momentos, particularmente cuando sentimos estrés, cuando
sentimos momentos en los que no estamos recibiendo suficiente atención y
reconocimiento de otras personas.

And it leaks out in some bitchy comment that we give or some abrasive comment that
hurts people's feelings.
Y se filtra en algún comentario malicioso que hacemos o en algún comentario
abrasivo que hiere los sentimientos de la gente.

Or it comes out in some act that surprises us or surprises the people around us.
O sale en algún acto que nos sorprende o que sorprende a la gente que nos rodea.

And we often see that with celebrities, people in the news who get caught out doing
some kind of weird sexual escapade or something like that. "I don't know who that
person was. That isn't me. Something came over me," right?
Y a menudo lo vemos con las celebridades, las personas que aparecen en las noticias
y que son descubiertas haciendo algún tipo de escapada sexual extraña o algo así.
"No sé quién era esa persona. Ese no soy yo. Algo se apoderó de mí", ¿verdad?

The guy who invested all of his money in bitcoins, he would tell me, "I don't know
who that was. That wasn't me that plopped all that money down.
El tipo que invirtió todo su dinero en bitcoins, me decía: "No sé quién era ese.
Ese no era yo el que puso todo ese dinero.

Something came over me." And we generally accept these explanations, 'cause it
makes sense, 'cause it only maybe happens
once or twice. But I'm telling you in my book that this kind of behavior is not an
exception. It's actually more of their real self, the real self that people have,
that is leaking out the shadow side.
Algo se apoderó de mí". Y generalmente aceptamos estas explicaciones, porque tiene
sentido, porque tal vez sólo sucede una o dos veces. Pero en mi libro te digo que
este tipo de comportamiento no es una excepción. En realidad es más bien su
verdadero yo, el verdadero yo que la gente tiene, que está filtrando el lado de la
sombra.

The shadow likes to disguise itself from you.

A la sombra le gusta disfrazarse de ti.

And one of the great shadow disguises that I talk about in the book is over-
idealization.
Y uno de los grandes disfraces de la sombra de los que hablo en el libro es la
sobre-idealización.

And this is what we see with the social justice warrior. Now if you're a social
justice warrior, you believe so deeply -- you've identified so deeply with your
cause-- that it justifies any kind of manipulative, nasty, intolerant, bigoted
behavior, 'cause it's all for the great cause that I'm promoting, right?
Y esto es lo que vemos con el guerrero de la justicia social. Ahora bien, si eres
un guerrero de la justicia social, crees tan profundamente -- te has identificado
tan profundamente con tu causa -- que justifica cualquier tipo de comportamiento
manipulador, desagradable, intolerante, fanático, porque todo es por la gran causa
que estoy promoviendo, ¿verdad?

You can censor people. You can tell people to shut up. You can do whatever you
want, because it's all for your great cause.

And you think it's because it's for the cause. But actually, a lot of it's coming
because the shadow is trying to find some way to get itself out. And it uses you in
this fashion. Social media has become this intense magnet for the dark shadow side
lurking inside of us, which is why we find all the nihilistic trolls, et cetera, on
social media. It's become an infested ground for the shadow.

So the point I tried to make-- the solution here-- is to be aware of it.

You're going around, and you've so identified with this sweet, angelic persona that
you have created for yourself and that you show the world that you don't even
imagine that you have the shadow. And it operates by the fact that you're unaware
of it.

The fact that Isaac Newton wasn't aware that he had a greedy little person inside
of him that was dying to get out made it so that he could lose all of its money in
this investment. So you want to see the shadow inside yourself.

Recognize that child within you that was tamped down. See the patterns of behavior
in which it leaks out.

And then, in my book, I describe many ways for how you can incorporate your shadow
in a productive way.
You can take your ambition and aggressive energy and channel it into some great
cause.

You can be a social warrior. Social justice-- there's nothing wrong with it. But
you don't have to be nasty and intolerant and bigoted.

You could be about getting results, about actually promoting your cause instead of
hurting and putting down other people, on and on.

But the key is you have to first see the shadow within you. Well, I'm going a lot
slower than I thought.

Maybe I'll skip over some of the things I have here.

So in my talks and in my experience, there's always been a phenomenon that has

struck me. And it first struck me about 12 years ago when I gave a talk at
Microsoft up in the Seattle area. Here was a group of 20,000 30,000 people, some in
this one area. And I was struck by how similar everybody was.

People kind of dressed alike. They all kind of acted alike. They were all sort of
this sort of buttoned-down, serious kind of personality. They weren't all the same.
But there was something weird about the kind of behavior patterns that I had never
seen in any other office before. Then some seven years ago, I was at Google up in
Mountain View.

And I noticed a similar thing, but much different. It was a much more playful and
open and much more pleasant, to be honest with you, environment. But there was
definitely a kind of a spirit that that group had-- this, I'm talking about, in
Mountain View. I worked on the board of directors for a company called American
Apparel.

And the CEO is this kind of insane mad man, kind of like-- he has sort of this
hippie, free love sort of mentality. And here you had a company of 10,000 people,
and they were all having nose rings and tattoos and cross dressing in the office.
Excuse me. Thank you.

It was like, what was going on here? And so I thought, what I'm seeing here at
Microsoft, at Google and American Apparel, that there's a culture. These places
have a culture.

And that's a weird phenomenon if you think about it. France, obviously, has a
culture. But that culture took 1,000 years to evolve,
and it's very pronounced. But in the course of 10, 20 years, Microsoft, Google,
American Apparel, they've evolved their own culture, their own way of being, where
people are kind of similar.

What is this phenomenon? And basically, I explain it in my book as one of those

very ancient processes that's kind of determining who we are. See, our ancestors,
in order to succeed and thrive as a social animal, they developed complex emotions
like joy, like surprise, like anxiety. And these emotions would show up on the
face.

This is before the invention of language. So you could look at the person next to
you and see that they were feeling anxious, and then you could feel it as well. And
then together, you could respond quickly, without ever having to say a word that
maybe there
was some predator in the area.

So these emotional responses that people had were very much communicated without
words, viscerally infected.

We became infected. We were susceptible to the emotions of people around us. And we
humans have inherited that incredible power.

The other thing that happened is that we developed what's known as mirror neurons,
which I talked a lot about in "Mastery."

I don't know if you're familiar with mirror neurons. Basically, that means is if
you're watching somebody playing tennis, the person playing tennis, as they're
hitting the ball, certain neurons are firing in their brain to make them hit it.

As you're watching them, the same neurons are firing in your brain that are firing
in theirs.

So this is what gives us the power to imitate and to learn. So you'll notice
sometimes you'll be watching a basketball game, and you'll almost be shooting a
free throw along with the player, because you're trying to will that ball into the
net. Those are your mirror neurons that are operating.

So we have this built-in power to take on the emotions and feelings and moods of
the people around us.

And if you put enough people together for enough time, through sheer osmosis, you
will create some kind of culture, and people will start acting and behaving in a
similar way. These cultures can be tight, like in Microsoft, or looser, as I
imagined here at Google. They could be more kind of traditional, or they can be
more kind of populous.

They can be sort of top-down or more egalitarian, on and on and on.

Often, the culture of the group reflects the person on top-- so Bill Gates,
obviously, for Microsoft and Dov Charney for American Apparel. I don't know. I
can't begin to speculate where that might be for Google.

I have no idea. So what happens with this culture is that, also, certain unwritten
codes of behavior evolved. And these sort of determine what is acceptable or not
acceptable within this culture. And if you don't pay attention to these codes here
at Google
or wherever office you're working, you are likely to be fired or ostracized and
never really understand why. So you need to pay attention to this.

So the idea that I'm trying to promote in this chapter is you like to think of
yourself as this independent person, where your thoughts and beliefs are your own.
But in fact, so many of the things that you think, so many of your values and
ideas, come from the group. We are more conformist than we imagine.

And I include myself in that. If we belong to a certain political tribe, we tend to

absorb all of the ideas-- the same ideas-- as other people that have the same
political beliefs. So we're much more conformist than we'd like to believe.

And the other thing is that if we're not careful, the kind of group mentality can
turn easily into a mob mentality. And it can become quite dangerous, as happens in
bubbles like the South Sea Bubble, etcetera.

So the solution that I'm promoting here is you need to be aware of how deeply the
group has infected your own behavior and infected your belief system so that you
can create a bit of space for some independent thinking so you can begin to realize
that maybe you don't want to have some of these ideas. They're not coming from
within.

And the second thing is if you're a leader of any kind of group in any way, you
must be very aware of the prevailing culture.

You must be able to read it and understand it and work with it. So if you're
starting a group, you're starting a business, if you have a startup of some sort,
you have the chance to create a culture. And it's extremely important, because once
a culture is created, like in Microsoft or American Apparel, it's very hard to
change it.

So I talk in the book about how to create a healthy, functional, what I call a
reality group as opposed to a dysfunctional group. So that's sort of the lesson
there.

The last sort of force that I wanted to talk about is related to this group force.

And basically, all of us belong to one enormous group that is millions, hundreds of
millions, that includes hundreds of millions of people.

And that group is the generation that we belong to.

A generation basically comprises 22 years. It's called a cohort.

So you belong to a particular generation, as I do.

And obviously, in that 22-year span, the people born near the beginning of their
generation and the people born near the end, there's going to be some differences.
But social scientists have discovered remarkable similarities between people within
a generation, even those that are separated by those years.

They'll have similar tastes, similar sense of humor, similar values, similar ideas.

Where does this come from? Well, in my book, I make a very kind of intricate
description of the origin of the generation and why it evolves that way. But very
simply put, when you're young, you're very vulnerable to the emotions and moods and
ideas of the people around you. And those of your own age, you're all watching--
back in the day when people did that-- you're all watching the same television
shows. You're all listening to more or less the same music.

You're all dealing with parents who came from their own generation, who have their
own different, special parenting styles, on and on. You're absorbing this kind of
group osmosis, this group personality that kind of determines who you are. And this
will be the same for millennials, for baby boomers, for Gen Xers. It's kind of like
a secret club that you belong to. So people who are millennials, you have a kind
of tacit understanding. I could never enter this club. I can never really
completely understand your mentality, because it's something that you only, from
within the generation, that you understand.

And there are two things that you have to see about the generation phenomenon.
First is every generation thinks that it's vastly superior to the one that came
before it and vastly superior to the one that comes after.

One of the most ancient forms of writing that we have is a Sumerian tablet in which
it's quoted, quote-- this is from 1000 BC, mind you-- "Today's youth is rotten,
evil, godless, and lazy. It will never be what youth used to be. And it will never
be able to preserve our culture,"end quote.

Now that sounds pretty familiar, right?

So people will say of millennials, "Oh, you're so soft. You're so pampered. What's
wrong with you?" But people were saying the same thing about baby boomers and
saying about the same thing about Gen Xers. It's human nature.

So the next time you hear somebody sort of parade this sign of superiority, which I
just basically consider generational narcissism, just tell yourself it's human
nature. People are going to be saying that 1,000 years from now.

The second thing you must understand is that the generational phenomena creates
what is called a zeitgeist, a spirit of the times.
It's critical, absolutely critical for you to understand if you want to be
successful in business or whatever.

The zeitgeist basically, at any one time, there are four generations that are
alive, the 22 years.

There might be a fifth generation. But they're getting pretty old, and they're
dying off. So the two youngest generations are the ones that are kind of unsettled.
They don't like the way the world is. They want a change.

They want to create new values, new fashions, new styles. They're generating all of
this energy for change.

The two older generations want to stop that. They want to hold on to the past. They
want to conserve and preserve the traditions
that they inherited. And these two seismic forces are continually clashing,
creating a spirit of the time, a zeitgeist. The other thing is with generations is
they follow this incredible pattern that people have discovered, have written about
for many years.

So there will be a generation that will be known as the revolutionary generation,

in which it overturns all of the previous ideas
and values and creates true revolution.

This will be followed by a generation that tries to preserve that revolution and
kind of turn it into something a little more rational and sane.

This will be followed by a very conservative generation that has lost touch with
the revolution, but is just basically all about safety and keeping what happened in
the past.

This will be followed by a crisis generation, which gets so sick of the stagnant
situation and of the values they've inherited that they're very unhappy and
dissatisfied. And this leads to the revolutionary generation, on and on and on and
on and on. And we can see the cycle continually happening.

And people estimate that the generation that is now that the millennial generation
is a true crisis generation.

I believe that's true. And that what is following is that we're on the verge of
another kind of revolution, the kind that happens, they estimate, every 80 or so
years, where values are going to be completely overturned, and something new is
gestating, something very exciting and something very different.

And so your task, in whatever you're creating or whatever you're doing, you have an
audience that you must reach. And that audience has a zeitgeist, has a spirit.

And this spirit is never stagnant. It's always changing. And you tend to be locked
in the past.

I like to tend the spirit of the times as a kind of a wave. If you're just behind
that wave, if you're not quite up to it, the product, the book that you write, the
startup that you create, will fail. If it's with that wave, if it's riding with it,
you will have some success. If you anticipate that wave, if you're a little bit
ahead of it, you will have tremendous success.

That is where true power lies. So you must be incredibly sensitive to this
phenomenon and not be-- your generation will tend to lock you into the past, lock
you into certain values and belief systems.

You want to let go of them. You want to develop some flow. And you want to be able
to develop this kind of very sensitive antenna
to what is going on with the younger generations, where true change is fomenting.

Now I've gone way over my talk, what I thought this would take. But I want to
conclude with a story that I have in my book that sort of illustrates to me the
tremendous power that you can have by putting these ideas into action.

And it's a story about another Englishman-- don't worry, this book isn't just about
English people-- a man named Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. He was one of the great
English explorers.

He lived in the beginning of the 20th century. Shackleton had led several
expeditions across Antarctica.

And it was his idea that he would lead the first expedition-- the first group of
men-- to cross this enormous continent on foot.

So in 1914, he set out with a crew of 27 men to accomplish this.

But as they got nearer to the point where they were to embark and cross the
continent, they got trapped in an ice floe.

And they were trapped in there for months. And their ship started catching water
and began to sink.

So he had to order all of his men off the ship and onto this ice floe. And they
managed to keep a couple of the life preserve ship-- the little lifeboats that were
on the boat. But basically, Shackleton was now facing what seemed to be an
impossible, dire situation.
They were about to enter the winter, in which there would be no daylight, and the
weather would be awful.

Their radio was too weak to send a distress signal to be picked up. So they were
trapped on their own.

Supplies from the ship were going to quickly run out. And so they would have
nothing to eat.

They would have to live off the land. And so to be able to survive against all
those odds seemed nearly impossible. But Shackleton had been on many expeditions.
He was this brilliant man who was not just brilliant at adventuring, but he had a
deep understanding of people and himself. So the first thing he realizes, in order
to get out of this horrible situation, he would have to be making a series of
decisions. The most important would be when to abandon the ice floe and try and go
somewhere else. And if he listened to his emotions, if he panicked or he got
doubtful, he wouldn't time this right. He would leave too early or too late. He had
to calm himself down.

He had to make sure that his decisions weren't being influenced by the men he was
leading and what they were feeling. He had to step back and assess rationally. What
was the best time to leave?

What was the best decision for that moment? The second thing was he had to deal
with a very diverse group of men that came from all different backgrounds, social,
economic backgrounds.

And he was an incredibly empathetic person. He made a point of getting inside the
spirit of each one of his men. He talked their language. To the photographer on the
ship, he talked like a photographer.

He got inside his more artistic point of view. To the carpenter, who was from a
lower class, he suddenly talked more of his language. He got into the spirit of
each of these men so that he could figure out their moods and anticipate when they
might start getting kind of negative and infect the group with doubts.

And he was very sensitive to each person. He understood that the group had a dark
side, that this could ruin any chances of success, that the great enemy wasn't the
weather or anything, but it was from within the human spirit. So he organized all
of these things that could channel this dark energy. He organized big soccer games
on the ice so they could get out their competitive spirit.
He organized all these kind of festivals where they could get drunk and rowdy and
raunchy, and he didn't stop it.

Basically, he tried constantly to elevate the group's spirits, that they would not
start doubting themselves, on and on and on. And through this process, he figured
out the moment when they left the ice floe.

They got on their lifeboats, and they traveled some 300 miles to an island, the
Elephant Island, where they now were on solid ground, but on a tiny beach where
they wouldn't survive. And then he took one of these little boats. With him were
six men who he'd carefully chosen.

He crossed the most treacherous waters on the planet-- 800 miles, with waves 30, 40
feet high-- to South Georgia Island, where he was able to get a rescue ship. And
all 27 men survived.

It is considered one of the most remarkable survival and rescue stories in the
history of mankind. And Sir Henry Shackleton has gone down in history.

Any books on leadership are always quoting this story of Shackleton and what he
accomplished on that journey.

Sorry, I'm losing my voice.

And basically, he did this through his knowledge of himself, through his incredible
empathetic connection to his men, and through his deep grasp of human nature.

Now I don't think here at Google you're ever going to be facing circumstances as
dire as what Shackleton faced. I'm not sure, but I don't think so. But it's a
social animal. We're always facing environments that are full of dangers,
disappointments, toxic people, et cetera. And it is my belief and my hope that with
a genuine understanding of human nature, which I hope to have sparked in you today,
you can navigate even the most treacherous, dysfunctional environment you'll ever
encounter and handle those toxic people that will inevitably cross your path, and
that you'll be able to develop that empathy that I think is the most powerful tool
that any human could possibly possess.

Thank you so much for this. I'm sorry about how long it went. I thought it was a
much shorter talk than it was.

But anyway, thank you. [APPLAUSE]

AUDIENCE: So you mentioned that 95% of a decision of action come from subconscious.
So is that on average, or there is there a range for that?

ROBERT GREENE: Well, the range would be coming through the understanding that I'm
trying to develop and help you with by understanding yourself more-- just by
understanding the fact that so much of your behavior is unconscious, you're already
going to increase the range of that 95 and lower it, because you're going to be
aware of these things going on. You're going to be able to see, for instance, if
emotions are governing your action and you're not aware of it. How you buy
something, or the plans and strategies you're making, or how you responded to
people. If you simply know that fact, then you're able to carve out carve out more
consciousness.

AUDIENCE: So how do you have a more empathetic relationship with your shadow?

And do you have any examples of how an individual use their shadow to be more
productive in what they want to accomplish?

ROBERT GREENE: You do have to be more empathetic. It's like a child inside of
yourself that you have to finally accept, and come
to terms with, and kind of love in a way. So I noticed my own shadow, for
instance-- I like to think of myself as this rigorously independent person.

But basically what it's disguising-- because the shadow also-- I didn't completely
go into everything.

The shadow is not just your dark emotions, it's also your insecurities and your
vulnerabilities that you're hiding from the world. And I'm hiding from the world,
from the public, a kind of scared child. I want to be independent and assert that
because I had parents that basically never gave me enough attention.

So I hope my mom's not watching this. She'll now want to rewind that.

But anyway, so-- I tend to kind of go too far with this sort of behavior.

I talk in the book about Abraham Lincoln, who had a very pronounced shadow.

And this shadow had two sides to it. First, he was kind of morbid, and a very
sensitive person-- almost kind of poetic in a way. He was obsessed with death. And
he knew that if he let out this kind of obsessive, morbid, overly sensitive
personality would get him in trouble.

People wouldn't like it. He also was a very aggressive and belligerent people.
These two sides lived in-- these two aspects were both there at the same time. He
was a belligerent person. You don't realize this, but he loved boxing, and he loved
beating the hell out of people. He was a boxer as a young man. And at one point in
his life he insulted another politician with very rude language. And he told
himself, I'm never going to do this again. He saw his shadow on parade.

And so he learned to channel these two sides of himself in a way that would be
productive.
He turned that kind of morbid sensitivity into empathy, to the feeling that he
didn't want to lose lives during the Civil War.

He wanted-- lives even Confederate soldiers was valuable to him. And he channeled
that aggressive energy into winning the war,
into strategizing, into being the most brilliant, rational, strategist that ever
lived.

I tell people who are artists use your anger, use your frustration and your anger,
and your hurts and put them into your work. Because-- and films and books that do
that grab an audience.

Because we all have these emotions, and these sides that we're tamping down, that
if you express your anger, it'll attract people like a magnet. And I did that--
I've done that in all my books. The 48 Laws of Power-- I had a lot of anger in
there, and I put it in the book, and I think that's what attracted a lot of readers
to it. And I talk in The Art of Seduction about Malcolm X and the tremendous anger
that was welling inside of him from all of the hurt that he had as a young man and
the years in prison.

And he tamped that down and he controlled-- he didn't explode. If you ever watched
Malcolm X speak, there was this incredible incandescence that I call charisma. He
was controlling that anger, but he was channeling it in these very rational,
powerful speeches. So I want you to take it and channel that energy into something
positive and productive. Take-- don't be afraid of your ambition, don't be afraid
that you're aggressive, but put it into something that's actually productive and
you'll accomplish something as opposed to hurting people.

I mean, I have more in the book about that-- that's sort of-- does that answer your
question? AUDIENCE: Yeah, thanks.

AUDIENCE: Hello. You mentioned that the laws of human nature are based in
neuroscience, and that we all experience it.

But how is it also related to mental disease? Do you believe that-- for sociopaths
for example, do you believe that they also are guided by these laws of human
nature?

Or do you believe that they are an edge case to this? ROBERT GREENE: They're what?
AUDIENCE: That they're an edge case.

ROBERT GREENE: Edge case? AUDIENCE: That they don't-- they're an outlier.

ROBERT GREENE: Well by the logic I've determined, nobody is exempt from it. OK?

So they are more like an edge case. So I talked about narcissism, we all have
narcissism and narcissistic tendencies. But there are people who fall deeply into
toxic narcissism, deep narcissism. They're only a more extreme example of a
tendency that we all have. So even the worst criminal is only displaying
potentiality and tendencies that exists within each and every one of us. So
criminals have a dark side, obviously.

And they act on that dark side more readily than we do. They didn't necessarily
tamp down all that energy that they had as a child. They're acting out on it more
in their twenties and thirties-- they're holding up liquor stores, they're robbing,
they're doing whatever they want because they never developed that positive,
angelic image that we have.

But even criminals, who I've studied a lot, 95% of the time, they're actually
polite people, getting along. They're not being aggressive, and violent and angry
all the time.

They've learned also as well-- in order to get along with people, in order to
survive even among other criminals-- that they have to present a certain kind of
image. So the laws that I'm talking about affect each and every one of us. So the
criminal mentality is simply an extension of tendencies we all have. The number one
thing that defines a true criminal is the fact that they don't have the normal
patience that we have to get what we want.

They are not able to delay their gratification needs. So if we want money and
recognition, we're willing to put in 10 years of hard work to get it-- knowing that
at the end there will be something [INAUDIBLE]..

They don't have that. They want instant gratification. They can't wait that long--
they need the money now, they need the attention, the excitement now. But we all
have that tendency. All of us are impatient.

We all are prone to taking the line of least resistance. If someone gave us a
shortcut-- instead of 10 years, it only took two years-- each and every one of us
would take that. So there is that tendency within all of us.

The book-- I really want to be making sure in a kind of humane way-- to stop
separating us and them.

As if we are these great superior creatures, they are these scum-- these human
rejects-- we are all in this together. We all have the same propensities.

You take any one of you and put you in some horrible, neglected, poverty-stricken
environment, you'll find survival skills that you never realized you had. You'll
become a different person. You might even discover criminal tendencies in yourself.

You never realize. So I want to get people off their high horse, off their moral
superiority, off their feeling that they're so much better than others. We're all
in this together. We all have the same flaws and the same strengths.

AUDIENCE: Thank you. AUDIENCE: Hi, Robert. I really enjoyed your talk.

ROBERT GREENE: It wasn't too long?

AUDIENCE: It was great. I really enjoyed it.

ROBERT GREENE: I cut out a whole bunch of stuff, if you can believe it.

AUDIENCE: I'm sort of disappointed. I'm used to listening to really long podcasts.
But I was taken with the storytelling aspect of your talk. And I'm wondering if you
can talk about A, what you think is-- this is a little off-topic for your book,
but-- A, what do you think makes for good storytelling, the way you've delivered
it? And maybe some of the people that you look up to as good storytellers.

ROBERT GREENE: Well, you know, since The 48 Laws of Power I've been-- my method--
bye, Travis. You're coming back?

I always decided that I would tell stories because I feel I want to draw the reader
into my subject.

And so many books that I read are really boring, and they don't connect with me,
because I'm always at a distance from what they're talking about. And I want to
seduce the reader. I want to draw you into my world, to my way of looking at
things, and a story does that. And the power of a story, which I talk a lot in two
of my books-- The Art of Seduction, and then in my third book on strategies of war,
my kind of version of Sun Tzu. I have a chapter about how to communicate to people,
and I just-- I reveal all of my secrets in that chapter. But basically, when you
tell a story people don't know what's happening next. And I always make it a point
that you don't know the lesson that I'm getting at where I begin.

You have no idea that the people I'm describing are actually the con artists who
are conning the other person.

You think they're the ones being conned, but they're the con artist. I try and
surprise you, I try to have some mystery.

And I lead you along, lead you along, and then boom-- I tell you the ending, and
the moral, and then I interpret it.

And I liken this-- the power of this, psychologically-- to when we were children.

We liked that feeling of our father picking us up and throwing us around, carrying
us someplace we didn't know where he was carrying us. We liked the idea of some
ride at an amusement park.

What's around the corner? What's happening next? What's behind the curtain? That
moment where you're wondering what's
happening next, you have caught the reader, you've hooked them. They're going to
want to know what's next.

So I'm always in the process of hooking the reader. I'm very aware of my audience.

I'm very aware of when they're going to get bored and where their attention is
going to weaken. So I want to create stories.

I mean-- any great novelist, any great playwright, any great screenwriter is going
to be a master at creating that level of suspense and mystery. But I think it's
deeply ingrained in us.

And if I could tell people that-- I teach people to write books, I'm often helping
them with their books-- I'm telling you, you're being too, obvious too familiar.
You're not surprising people.

By the third chapter we've read everything that you have to say. You've left no
surprises.

So I always structured my books to have continual little pops, make them think-- so
you're never quite bored. Hope I've succeeded.
AUDIENCE: I'm excited to read your book.

ROBERT GREENE: Oh, thank you.

AUDIENCE: Hey, Robert. Hey. So you talked a lot about the power of empathy. I'm
curious what your thoughts are on-- let's say as a leader, and having to make
decisions sort of for the overall-- the best possible decision for the overall
good, right? Even when sometimes it has to be kind of hard on certain groups of
people, right? And you need to like work harder to sort of get ahead in a certain
environment-- what are your thoughts-- do you ever feel like too much empathy can
lead to a little bit more of an irrational and emotional decision making?

ROBERT GREENE: It's a very good question. Yeah, there's a level there where as a
leader, in particular, you have to cut that off. But the empathy that you're having
is-- as a leader, you're there for the greater good. The group is coming together
to create something positive, what I call a reality group. A reality group is a
group that's together to make something, to create a product, to create a book or a
film. It's not there for emotional purpose, it's not there for people to be
friends, or to get out their ya-yas. It's to make something.

So you're grounded in reality, you're practical. And if you have 10 members and one
of them is some kind of raging narcissistic asshole, or whatever, you can't be
empathetic to that person.

You have to find a way to isolate them so your empathy is geared towards the
greater good of the group.

I have a chapter on this, a chapter on authority. And I talk about the icon of that
is Queen Elizabeth I, that I discuss-- who is an immensely empathetic person but
was in a terrible position as the female ruler at a time when women weren't
supposed to rule.
And so she created a style of authority that I think is incredibly powerful.

And from her story I kind of deduce certain laws. And so for instance, if you need
the group to work harder-- and they're slagging off, et cetera-- you need to lead
from the front. You need to set the example.

You can't be sitting there back in your office yelling at people saying, what are
you going home right now? It's 4 o'clock!

No, you've got to stay longer. You can't be berating people and pushing them like a
donkey up a hill.

If you set the example, if you set the tone and the spirit, people will follow you.

And that's the mistake. 95% of these-- I keep using that number, sorry-- so many
mistakes that people make, leader-wise, is they think that it comes from other
people.

That their employees are to blame, they're lazy, they don't know what they're
doing. It comes from you.

You're not setting the tone. You have the power to set the right tone. You're in
the office work until 9, 10 o'clock, and everybody sees that. They're going to
follow your lead. They're going to see that you take responsibility for mistakes.
You don't blame scapegoats. They're going to say, oh, I better take responsibility
for myself.

You're not favoring this person over that person. You're treating everybody more or
less equally.

Oh, OK, I'm motivated to work harder and earn his or her trust. Through the tone
that you set, that's the power that you have as a leader. It's much better than
yelling at people and berating them.

So I agree, empathy can go too far in that case, and you have to set limits and
boundaries.

But more than anything, you have to set the proper tone for the group.

AUDIENCE: So I have a question about leadership. You mentioned that people in--
actually about culture. People in certain environment become very similar to each
other. And we have a tendency to be like other people around us.
I was wondering, if you don't like something about the culture and you're not in
the leadership position to set an example, how do you go about changing the
culture?

ROBERT GREENE: It's extremely difficult, particularly if you're in a large company,

because the culture is stronger than any individual. Right so if you're in a
dysfunctional environment-- and believe me I've consulted with companies that I
would
call dysfunctional-- you as an individual have very limited choices.

And I've talked to people like that and I say, in these situations, you have to be
a little bit selfish.

You have to see the skills that you can get-- you have to learn from this, you have
to learn the negative examples, and you
have to get out as quickly as you can. Because these kind of environments will drag
you down.

I say people can go crazy-- can literally develop a mental illness-- by working in
a dysfunctional group. It can infect you and you'll never get over the rest of your
life.

As opposed to working for a reality group, or positive place, can actually improve
your mental health.

So first of all, don't be hubristic, don't be grandiose and think that you-- one
person, mid-level employee-- is going to suddenly be-- shining knight in armor and
going to change this culture. You can't. It's stronger than you are. And I talk in
the book about the United States Pentagon.

It's very powerful, rooted military culture. And all these people came in thinking
that they were going to be the ones that were going to alter the culture. John F.
Kennedy was one, Lyndon Johnson was one.

They didn't want to get deeper involved in the Vietnam War, they were going to
change the culture.

And the culture ended up changing them, ended up making them go further and further
into the war.

The culture will change you the longer you're in it. You won't change it. So have
some humility, think about yourself, and as soon
as you can get out of it. If you give me more specifics, I can go more deeply into
it. That's generally the advice I give.

AUDIENCE: It may not be necessarily a dysfunctional culture. There may be aspects

like-- we went to Microsoft, everybody was a certain way. What if you have some
different idea for what culture should be? Not necessarily-- I'm not talking
dysfunction.
ROBERT GREENE: I'm sorry, I misunderstood. Well in a culture like Microsoft-- and
I'm generalizing a bit-- but there
wasn't much room for expressing something weird or individual, showing your own
flair. But you always could if you learned to first abide by the conventions of the
culture that you're in.

So when you enter a new environment, a new group-- let's say you enter Google for
the first time and there is a pronounced culture-- you must be very attuned to it.
You must understand the spirit, you must understand the mood that prevails, and
certain codes of behavior. What is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Even though you may not like it, you have to learn those codes.

And from within those codes perhaps you have room to express a little bit more of
your individuality. And it's a game because sometimes bending those rules a little
bit and being more of yourself will actually be very powerful.

If you're simply the company man or woman, maybe you won't get very far because
you're too much of a conformist. So sometimes operating within the conventions and
the codes of behavior, you have room to bend them a little bit and show some of
your own flair. I know I'm generalizing in that sense, but that's one way where you
can kind of operate within that kind of strict environment.

AUDIENCE: Thank you. ROBERT GREENE: Well, I'm going to see this through. All right.

AUDIENCE: Hey, thanks for your talk. I really enjoyed it. So my question was-- I'm
a little curious about what you
were discussing about the power of empathic ability.

Empathic ability. How I see it that someone with a greater empathic ability would,
in an Interaction, have essentially a greater level of power maybe to the point of
a manipulative capacity.

And how is it possible to recognize this type of power dynamic? And what's the best
way to address that?

ROBERT GREENE: Very good question. So it's a known thing in psychology that a lot
of psychopaths-- or sociopaths, whichever term you prefer-- can be very attuned to
other people.

They have actually empathy, and that's what makes them such great manipulators.
They're able to get inside the moods and ideas of people.

And they know who you are and that gives them the room to manipulate. So it's a
very good point.

And I discuss this in the book that there are different kinds of empathy. There is
what I call analytic empathy in which you are looking at the other person in a very
analytic way. What's their weakness, what's their strength, who are they?

And I talk about visceral empathy. Visceral empathy comes from here, from the gut.

It's a feeling. And I talk about we have this power-- I can't read your thoughts,
but through great knowledge of nonverbal behavior-- which is part of my talk I
didn't get to get to-- I can feel what your mood is, what your emotions are, what
your spirit is. And that creates a kind of visceral connection. A communication
that predates words that we humans possess.

And that kind of visceral empathy is more human, it's more elemental, it's more on
the level of two fellow people communicating to each other. And the psychopath
doesn't have that visceral empathy, which is what enables them to be so evil and
nasty and manipulative. Because they can go inside your world and figure out how to
mess with you and they won't feel any compunction because they lack that quality
that links two people from here. Not from the heart, but from the viscera.

And so to have true empathy you have to develop this other skill. And I say in
there, having just visceral empathy is not enough either. Because sometimes that
gut feeling, that communication, can be inaccurate.
You can misread people. So you want to have that analytic ability. You want to have
the ability to go what was your childhood like, what was your mother like, who are
you? And analyze it.

But you want it with this as well because one without the other will make you a
kind of inhuman beast.

So that's the difference between the two.

AUDIENCE: All right. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming.

Thank you, Robert for giving this awesome talk. [APPLAUSE]