How to Use Your Enemies

‘Enemies are of more use to the wise man than friends are to the fool.’

Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill by Pieter Claesz | Public Domain

‘Even when explaining yourself’ — writes Baltasar Graciàn — ‘you should avoid complete frankness, just as you shouldn’t open yourself up to everyone in all your dealings.’

This piece of advice comes from a book called How to Use Your Enemies written by a 17th-century Spanish priest — Baltasar Graciàn.

This isn’t the sort of advice one expects to hear from a priest. After all, we come to priests to seek consolation, not to find advice on shrewd manipulation techniques.

Graciàn’s wily maxims had an enormous influence on Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. It seems ironic that the two greatest philosophers of the 19th century, who are famed for their denial of God and irreligiosity, drew inspiration from the ideas that were expressed by a clergyman.

It is no wonder, however, why Nietzsche or Schopenhauer were influenced by Graciàn’s ideas. Anyone who has read at least one line written by him will be forced to stop and take a pause to fully absorb his wisdom.

I, personally, can ponder for days on each piece of advice given by Graciàn. Here, however, I would like to share with you 5 of his ideas that had the biggest influence on me, along with a little commentary on each by myself.

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In your affairs, create suspense.

‘It is neither useful nor pleasurable to show all your cards’

Who is the most known artist of the past 20 years?

I’ll go first. It’s Banksy. We can debate whether he is great or not, but none of us can deny that he conquers news headlines each time he paints something.

There is a mystery about him though. It is the suspense of who could be ‘the real Banksy’. Isn’t it interesting that the most known artist of the past 20 years is essentially unknown?

Graciàn tells us that we need to create suspense in our actions because ‘admiration at their novelty means respect for [our] success.’

A magician, for example, loses all his power if his audience knows the secret behind his tricks. People admire his tricks precisely because they do not know how he does them.

We can add a bit of suspense to our daily lives by not revealing all our cards.

Vary your procedure.

‘It’s easy to kill a bird that flies straight, but not one that twists and turns.’

Never use the same trick twice. Your opponents search for patterns in your actions. They wait for you ‘to fly straight’ so they could easily strike you.

Vary your ways. Become ingenious, innovative and unpredictable.

‘Sharp players never move the piece their opponents are expecting, and especially not the one they want them to.’

Quit whilst fortune is smiling, as all good gamblers do.

‘The intensity of fortune’s favour sometimes compensates for the brevity of its duration’

Fortune is a malevolent seducer. When we get seduced by it, we forget that no good fortune lasts forever. That’s when we become fortune’s fools.

Gracian says that every good gambler knows when to quit.

‘The more blessings there are rushing towards us, the greater the risk of them stumbling and bringing everything down.’

Make sure of a successful outcome.

‘Whoever wins need offer no explanations’

‘Some focus more on going about things the right way than on achieving their goal’

This advice does have a cold, shrewd, devious Machiavellian vibe to it. Instantly we think of heartless politicians who can sacrifice the interests of the public for the sake of their greedy goals.

However, this advice could have two other, less devious, interpretations.

First, don’t be productive for the sake of being productive.

Many people build super-sophisticated productivity systems and then forget why they built them for. It’s like building a fast ship in a landlocked country.

I encountered this when I had to write my Master’s thesis. I spent a lot of time doing research, and not enough time writing the thesis. The goal was to write a thesis, not to collect sources for their own sake. I lost my focus then and made a mistake all students do (at least once) I had to panic-write my essay within several days.

Second, don’t follow rules blindly.

Rules are often written by people who are less competent than you. This is not a call for rebellion, but a reminder that it is not just to follow unjust rules.

Don’t seek refuge in the false security of consensus.

Don’t live in a hurry.

“They want to devour in a day what could barely be digested in a lifetime.”

We are obsessed with productivity today. We think that happiness can be measured by the number of tasks on our to-do lists.

‘One thinks with a watch in one’s hand’ — Nietzsche complained in an essay — ‘even as one eats one’s midday meal while reading the latest news of the stock market’.

It’s interesting to witness that Graciàn noticed the same obsession in the 17th century.

‘To know how to parcel things out is to know how to enjoy them’ he writes.

‘Take enjoyment slowly and tasks quickly. It’s good when tasks are completed, but bad when happiness is over.’

Confide tibimet

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This article was originally published in August, 2022 on Medium.

I no longer write there, so thought I would share some of the pieces here.

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