Standing on a terrace above Barcelona, Seth realized he had been losing power games for years without knowing he was playing. Chapter 14 reads Robert Greene's 48 Laws through an AI lens, applies Ivan Illich's distinction between convivial and manipulative tools to the question of whether AI strengthens or restructures your thinking, and examines the Harvard BCG study showing AI improved consultants by 40% on some tasks while making them 23% worse on others. Bastani's research showed the variable was interaction design: students who used AI for answers did nearly a fifth worse once it was taken away, while a version that asked questions first avoided that loss.
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1
Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power (1998)
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2
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (1973)
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3
Dell'Acqua et al., “Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier” (Harvard Business School, 2023)
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4
Bastani et al., “Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning” (PNAS, 2025)
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5
Pierre-Paul Grassé on stigmergy (1959)
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6
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019)
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7
Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)
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8
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (1950)
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9
Satya Nadella, "Looking Ahead to 2026" (2025), and Steve Jobs on the bicycle of the mind
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10
Sam Altman, "The Gentle Singularity" (2025)
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11
Jacob Coxon at the New York City Council (October 2026) and Andrew Ng in The Economist (October 2026)
Think of something you made with AI this week. An email, an analysis, a piece of writing, a plan. Ask yourself honestly: could you produce most of its quality alone?
If yes, the collaboration amplified you. The bicycle is working.
If no, it carried you. You have been riding in the car.
Now name one thinking skill you had before you started using AI regularly. Writing from scratch, finding a needle in a research haystack, decomposing a hard problem into pieces. Is it sharper now, or has it gone rusty? The answer tells you something worth sitting with before the next session.