"Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable
need to see familiarity in other people’s actions.
Your predictability gives them a sense of control.
Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable.
Behavior that seems to have no consistency or
purpose will keep them off-balance, and they
will wear themselves out trying to explain your
moves.
Taken to an extreme, this strategy can
intimidate and terrorize."
The above in an excerpt from Green's
The 48 Laws of Power (1998), a best seller
that examines:
- one's ability to influence others,
called "Personal Power", and
- those specific behaviors that lead to
the accrual or the loss of personal power.