So, after having basically seen a video suggested to me by YouTube, I started down a rabbit-hole of men-women relationship videos. One of the podcasts I have watched a few episodes of got into a discussion of Pickup Artistry. Now right off the bat, I would have had a problem with that. But the discussion, while acknowledging that there are bad actors out there who use the techniques just to trick women into bed, centered more on the positive aspect- it’s trying to teach people how to understand human nature so they can make a connection. One of the guys related himself to Will Smith’s character in the movie Hitch- at least his character starting off in college. Hitch decides to learn how to approach and talk to women. He teaches other guys to do the same so they can open themselves up to making more connections.

Now, I’m not interested in trying to meet women, but I am interested in human nature and understanding how people work.

The woman in the podcast mentioned several books that she used on the subject: Robert Greene’s Laws of Human Nature being one. While I’ve not gotten the book yet ( I probably will later), I have listened to several podcasts featuring Robert Greene, and have listened to several summaries of the book. I’m fascinated by the insights. I also see all sorts of connections between this and life as it is described in the Bible.  

Lots of people have all sorts of complaints about Christianity. But I think it’s just true. The explanation of the world found in the bible rings true to me, and many of the points Greene makes in his book are ideas that I’ve found in just living my life as a believer.

I’ve mentioned before that the reason I read so much is to get a better understanding of life. Proverbs says get wisdom and understanding. There are a lot of opinions floating around out there about what’s going on in the world today, and many are contradictory. There is an increasing difficulty in simple sense-making about the world. So, learning about human nature is something I have been interested in, in part to help me make sense of the political world, but also in the realm of just understanding how people are.  

Ultimately, I’m called to minister to the people I’ve been put in contact with, so learning to see what makes them tick is important. I’ll hopefully relate some more of what I’m learning as I go along.