After reading 48 Laws of Power, I started seeing interactions between 1) others & myself, 2) others & others in a completely different light. There were these mental "hooks" I could analyze human interactions through.<p>Neil Strauss's "Rules of the Game" did something similar.<p>I'm currently reading Robin Baker's "Sperm Wars" and it's again showing me human interactions through a new light.<p>So, HN: what are the books that presented new theories / ideas on human nature that has changed the way you view / analyze human interactions?
A friend of mine found this to be true for Sun Tzu's <i>The Art of War</i>.<p>I found something akin, not so much "interactions" as in understanding the "why" about many human things, in reading Richard Dawkin's <i>The Selfish Gene</i>.
Plato's "The Sophist".<p>Saint-Simon's memoirs.<p>Neither really for theories as such, the latter for reflections on the the behavior observed.<p>Since wturner mentions "Blood Rite" let me throw in Vico's "New Science"
That 48 Laws of Power book is BS. C.f. pg's How To Make Wealth essay or else Dee Hock's essay on leadership:<p><a href="http://futurepositive.synearth.net/leader-follower/" rel="nofollow">http://futurepositive.synearth.net/leader-follower/</a>