As long as we have lived on this planet, we have dealt with a lot of things whether it’s other creature, natural disasters, etc. The one huge obstacle I can say that we probably have faced is the interaction with other people. I say this because you have so many personalities and individuals in the world that some will get along and some won’t; that’s the natural way of things. If you ever heard or been told that your or someone need to “brush up on your people skills”, then what that person actually means is you need to acquire Social Intelligence.
Social Intelligence is exactly what it says, the ability to get along or deal with people. Period. I’m a huge fan of Robert Greene’s books (If you didn’t know by now) and his recent book, Mastery, tells a lot about Social Intelligence and how important it is to you, me and pretty much everyone else. From his book, he goes on to explain about the “7 Deadly Realities of Social Intelligence” and why you would want to avoid them. Here are seven deadly realities below and feel free to disagree with any that doesn’t stick with you, what I’m interested in is everyone’s perspective on this so here it goes:
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- Envy – As we all know, this is one of the seven deadly sins. When we run into others, it is like second-nature that we compare ourselves to he/she–whether if it is in looks, money, popularity, intelligence, etc. We can naturally experience some envy if we have ill feelings towards someone who may be doing better than us, but envy can go much deeper for some others. This can be rooted to a person’s insecurities and leads to that person taking action to sabotage their target.
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- Conformism – When people form groups of any type, a kind of organizational mind-set sets in. Although the members can hold their tolerance and celebrate people’s differences, the reality is that those who are different make them feel uncomfortable and insecure, calling the values of the dominant culture into question. You have probably seen this happening a lot lately where you have a lot of people who still believe in the standards that come with the confederate flag and the others that don’t (This is just an example and not meant for a controversial argument).
- Rigidity – People who follow procedures without really knowing why, simply because those procedures have worked in the past, and they become highly defensive if their ways are brought into question. If they are hooked on a certain idea, they will hold on to it even if that idea has been proven wrong repeatedly. You could say that these types are closed-minded and not open to hearing others opinions about different approaches.
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- Self-Obsessiveness – In life we have two types of people, people who sincerely think about others first and the people who only think about themselves first. Then again, all of us probably subconsciously thinks about ourselves first for a lot of things. I would probably say that this and conceit goes hand in hand. People who are self-obsessed only care about themselves and look out for their selves. If you ask for a favor, usually you would have to apply to their self-interest in order to have cooperation.
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- Laziness – My teachers used to tell me in college that “Humans are kind of like current, they like to take the path of least resistance” and I believe this to be true because I have fell victim to this deadly reality a couple of times. We all have goals and while some control their impatience to get to their goals, others cannot. They look for ways to make the path to their goals even shorter by taking credit for another person’s work, stealing ideas, etc. Watch out for these types that do not value hard work.
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- Flightiness – We have two sides to our brains, the side that solely relies on logic and the side that relies on emotions. People could have ideas one, but if they are under the pull of their own emotions, that idea could change in a day or an hour depending on the mood. You should never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their own permanent desire. They could love your idea one day, but hate it the next day.
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- Passive Aggression – This is by far one of the most annoying realities to myself. I have run into these types before and like to label them as “Two-Faced”, meaning when he/she is around you, you are treated nicely but when they are not around you, he/she is your worst enemy while you still believe you’re good pals. Their exterior is friendly while their interior feelings is the complete opposite. With these types you have to pay complete attention to their actions and not the exterior because he/she can entangle you in vines of drama that will wear and tear you down.
The Steered Mind 
