Fortress of Solitude and how you should use it.

2026 Day 200. #PersonalDays.

Reading loads of psychology opens up your mind to new ideas, or reinforces the previous ones. The better advice usually is the one that arrives through multiple sources.

The 18th Law of Power – DO NOT BUILD A FORTRESS – talks about Machiavellian ideas among with Robert Greene’s agreement.

The majority of the content talks about how isolating yourself in times of danger can increase in many fold. When you are involved in everyday conversations and communicate well you

  • Build an understanding of the current mood of the people around you and the various groups you mingle in.
  • Become better at engaging with people because you’re getting more practice in.

Humans are social creatures and thus socialising can greatly aid your mood, general mental health, and your power. The more people you meet and talk to, the more allies you’ll make. There will also be an increase in enemies, but play your cards right.

Photo by Aleksandr Eremin on Unsplash

The consequences of hiding away from danger are not apparent in the first instance.

The masses are not driven by the most logical ideas, but the loudest ones. Once you have retreated from people, you also lose touch with the current reality.

Your ideas and taste can be beneficial for someone but they tend to listen to the more popular opinion.

This is because we presume that if the majority of people have the same opinion, it is of greater importance. We conveniently forget biases in evaluating them.

Thus being involved with people and taking control of them, you can manage to swing them in your favour. This is only possible when you mingle with everyone.

Do not limit yourself to people from the same social status as you. Meet everyone and delight everyone. You will learn of new ideas, opinions, and current sentiments of the people of various strata. The diverse group of people to learn from help minimise biased in your head when you do learn something or have a genuine conversation.

While the advice is sound and I do agree with it, I feel it is important to have a place to retreat to every once in a while. It can help us recharge, and look over our recent actions more closely and go over recent happenings. From personal experience some alone time can be greatly beneficial, once a day or so.

The idea is not to hide in when you committed a mistake and are shying away from the consequences. Instead once you’ve dealt with the consequences, you can retreat to a safer place to ponder what went wrong. Learn from your mistake and never repeat it again.

Solitude can also be important before a decision. Once you have gathered the information you need, listed out the pros and cons, consulted your trusted peers and evaluated them, you need to take the final step. At this point some patience, and quiet time can really help you sort through everything and arrive at decision.

Borrowing from Kahneman, the time taken to think before you act activates your System 2, the more logical and understanding side of you. While using this doesn’t guarantee success, it does offer a logical train of thought that you can follow. Of course, if your tracks are not laid correctly, the train derails.

See you tomorrow.