The Magnus Protocol 9 – Rolling With It

In The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene asserts that whether you like it or not, you’re part of a never-ending game of power. You’re either striving for and wielding power, or you’re a pawn being played by someone more powerful than you. You choose your role.

This book is for those who prefer to be players rather than pawns. To turn you from an amateur into a master player, Greene has codified 48 laws of power based on historical examples of people who’ve excelled or failed at wielding power, with glorious or bloody results (or both). Some key principles you’ll learn: use your enemies, keep others dependent on you, say as little as possible, take credit for others’ work, and don’t get your hands dirty. You can choose to apply or dismiss these rules - but you can’t escape them.

Usually, when we see someone fabulously successful, we attribute her success to skill. But skill will generally only earn a person moderate success. Wild success, the kind that comes with outsized wealth and lasting fame, is usually due to luck: a fortunate rare event plus a lack of negative rare events.

In Fooled by Randomness, former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb examines the outsized role luck plays in success, how and why people don’t generally understand luck, and how we can accommodate randomness in our lives once we’re aware of it. Taleb primarily focuses on examples from the world of investing, but his principles are applicable to any field ruled by unpredictability (such as economics or politics) and demonstrate how we’re fooled by randomness in many aspects of our lives.

In business, as in life, the only thing certain is uncertainty. How, then, can companies survive—even thrive—when the future is unpredictable? In Great by Choice, authors Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen shed some light on why some companies weather great adversity better than others.

Using nine years of research and offering plenty of real-world examples, the authors debunk long-held myths when it comes to highly successful companies and present the tools that these enterprises use to help them weather tumultuous times. The book’s overarching message: Luck doesn’t determine your fate—you do. And you can make the choice to become something great, whatever the circumstance.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells the stories of a small company of American soldiers serving in the Vietnam War. Through the narrative, the book blurs the line between autobiography and fiction, leaving the reader unsure as to what is fact and what is myth. In reading these stories, we explore the harrowing physical and psychological toll of warfare and the dehumanizing and brutalizing effects of combat on human beings. We also see the transformative power that narrative and storytelling have to help us make sense of our experiences and give meaning and clarity to even the most shocking, chaotic, and traumatizing events.

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is a compilation of pamphlets offering financial advice that were distributed by banks and insurance companies in the 1920s. The book presents timeless principles for managing your money in the form of “Seven Cures for a Lean Purse” (how to acquire wealth) and “Five Laws of Gold” (how to preserve and grow wealth).

The simple principles are illustrated by parables set more than 4,000 years ago in the wealthy city of Babylon. Clason’s message is that if you work hard, save, live within your means, and invest wisely, you can become wealthy.

Can you become wealthy, practice self-improvement, and make the world a better place all at once? In Thou Shall Prosper, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin teaches you how to do exactly that by following what he calls the “Ten Commandments” of making money. Lapin blends modern economics lessons and business advice with traditional Jewish wisdom to create a text that’s half business guide and half self-help book.

In this guide, we’ll explore ancient rabbis’ views on conducting business, how you can build and lead your own business, and how earning money can be a spiritual pursuit. In our commentary, we’ll provide background information about Judaism to make Lapin’s teachings more accessible. We’ll also compare Lapin’s ideas with those in secular books on similar topics, such as Limitless by Jim Kwik and Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

What was the secret that kept ancient Greeks and early Christians from fearing death? In The Immortality Key, attorney and scholar Brian Muraresku argues that the origins of Christianity are rooted in the psychedelic rituals of ancient Greek life and that these rituals allowed people to embrace their mortality.

Presenting a decade’s worth of research and evidence, Muraresku delves into the origins of Christianity, its overlap with pre-existing pagan customs, and its eventual diversion. Along the way, he asks how we might glean some wisdom from those ancient traditions to reconsider the place of psychedelics in the modern world—can a transcendent experience provide a key to our immortality?

In this guide, we’ll discuss the evidence and arguments Muraresku presents about Christianity and its connection to Greek paganism, as well as his questions about what psychedelics have to offer humanity. We’ll also explore current research and varied viewpoints regarding the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.

Renowned astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan believes the world is in a precarious position. Science has taught us a great deal about the world and brought about many beneficial changes to humanity, yet we still cling to unscientific beliefs and ideas at an alarming level. Sagan argues that as we advance into the 21st century and beyond, our collective ignorance of scientific methods, values, and thinking may be catastrophic to us and the world we live in.

In The Demon-Haunted World, he tries to counteract these dangers by teaching the scientific method and encouraging the application of critical and skeptical thinking in all facets of life. In our guide, we’ll examine Sagan’s argument that a less scientifically-minded society is a less prosperous and functional one. We’ll look at how the issues Sagan addresses have developed in the 25 years since the book’s publication. We’ll also look at how we, both individually and collectively, can remain critical and well-informed in an increasingly complex world.

For years, we’ve been taught the same formula for success: Start practicing as soon as possible, and don’t stop until you’re the best in the world. If you haven’t already been training, there’s no point in starting now—you’re too far behind. However, luckily for us, this formula for success is a myth. The true path to excellence is far more flexible.

David Epstein is a former writer for Sports Illustrated who has built his career writing about the science behind athleticism. In Range, Epstein makes the case for generalism: a broad competence in many areas rather than the extreme mastery of one. Not only does cultivating range free you to pursue more of your interests, it entails professional advantages you never could have predicted.

In this guide, we’ll trace Epstein’s ideas to the books and thinkers that inspired him and take a closer look at the studies he cites, including intriguing details that he chose to leave out.