You Should Study Persuasion

The Greek Philosopher and pupil of Socrates Antisthenes once had a saying:

Here he is distinguishing between two forms of education:

1) Philosophy is aimed at understanding the nature of existence, ethics, and the pursuit of wisdom. It is a path that encourages introspection, virtue, and living in accordance with nature. Study philosophy if you are surrounded by other people who seek the truth.

2) Rhetoric, commonly known as the art of persuasion, is the opposite discipline. It is the study of how to to influence other with wordplay and emphasis. If you live among men, which we all do, we must study persuasion to get what we want.

Rhetoric held an important place in ancient education because rhetoric is powerful. Persuasion is powerful. With just a few adjustments in words we can achieve anything we want. I don’t think people realize how sensitive we humans are to slight adjustment in language:

Even today, books on persuasion become big best sellers and corporations spend billions on marketing and advertising.

Some examples are:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

• The Science of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Many of these techniques are not new. They’ve been around for thousands of years.

People are just starting to rediscover them with behavioral science and psychology studies. However, much of what contemporary psychologists understand—regarding human behavior and persuasion—has long been mastered by a trio of unconventional experts: con-men, used car salesmen, and magicians. They honed their skills through the meticulous process of trial and error.

Take Donald Trump for example. He immediately slaps a nickname on all his opponents. A rhetorical trick that keeps working. The nicknames stick and is hard for his opponent to fight against.

In This Newsletter

1) Why Did Plato Hate the Sophists?

2) Persuasion and the Creator Economy

3) A Long List of Ancient Rhetorical Tricks

Why Did Plato Hate the Sophists?

Rhetoric is just a fancy word for persuasion. It’s just these tricks that you can use to influence people. And these tricks really do work. They worked back 2,000 years ago, and they work today. The human doesn’t change. We are still susceptible to certain asymmetries in speaking and slight changes in behavior.

Some Rhetorical tricks are obvious:

• Paralipsis (also known as praeteritio) is a strategy where the speaker mentions something by claiming not to mention it. This technique can be used to bring up points or accusations while appearing to remain above the fray. It effectively draws attention to a subject under the guise of omitting it. A modern exath. mple of paralipsis can be where a politician might say, "I'm not going to mention the allegations against my opponent," thereby ensuring that the allegations are mentioned and brought to the audience's attention without appearing to engage with them directly.

Other tricks are a little more obscure:

• Anadiplosis involves repeating the last word of one sentence at the start of the next. The repetition and linkage of words across sentences or clauses create a memorable pattern that can help listeners or readers recall the message more easily. This technique is exemplified by the phrase, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering,"

If you string enough rhetorical devices together, you’ll be able to start persuading people. Which is one of the reasons why Plato and other philosophers disliked Sophists. Even today, calling someone a Sophist is an insult 2,000 years later. Sophists were this group of tutors in Ancient Greece who would go around and teach anyone who paid them tips and tricks on persuasion. Their focus on rhetoric and persuasive techniques led to accusations that they taught students how to make weaker arguments appear stronger, thereby valuing persuasive skills over the pursuit of truth.

Rhetoric resembles a sword or weapon. Whoever picks it up can use it for whatever purpose they like. Whether it is to advance at work, to seduce members of the opposite sex, or to gain fame and popularity.

Persuasion And the Creator Economy

There’s an old saying. Business is only two departments: Marketing and Product. You can have a great product but it doesn’t matter if you can’t market it correctly. The world is full of great products, art, writing, and objects that were just not marketed right. The online world is no different.

Building an audience online now demands basic persuasion skills - an unwelcome burden for creators. In the past, organizations handled marketing so writers, artists, and experts focused purely on their craft. Today's social media shifts that burden onto all individual creators. This is frustrating for certain people.

But persuasion isn’t just about ancient rhetorical devices which focused on speech and certain words. Now people have to learn digital rhetoric. The image. This includes knowing when and how people are likely to share information, the impact of visual elements, and the role of interactivity in persuasion.

There’s even algorithmic persuasion now.

For example, news feeds filtered by algorithms tend to trap readers in echo chambers. You are fed more of whatever political viewpoint or conspiracy theories you've already shown an interest in. This creates a distorted sense that those niche perspectives are far more widespread than they really are, which pushes people further into radicalization.

I experienced this in action on TikTok. Once I liked or engaged with certain types of videos, the recommendation algorithm would feed me an increasingly narrow subset of hyper-similar videos. I felt stuck in a limited bubble of content with no exposure to differing perspectives or variety. This "algorithmic siloing" gave me no chance to break out of the patterns predicted by the code.

A List of 20 Ancient Rhetorical Techniques That Work

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