Conclusion

HUMAN BEINGS HAVE lots of programs running all at once. Sometimes, despite the complexity, our behavior is predictable based on the premise of stimulus–response. Just like any other animal, we start at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs with food, shelter, and sleep. We start to face myriad possibilities for fulfilling needs as we ascend to the higher, human levels in which we seek self-esteem and self-actualization.

Does the pyramid of needs ever reach a point and end? No. As we continue to experience more and more, the point gets farther away, because more layers build up the pyramid. In other words, we don't reach the peak of self-actualization; we are always looking for something else. And at each level, we try to find peers.

Even if you reach the pinnacle of your model of existence, you still need to belong. You need a peer group.

Learning to get what you want from people is preying on that need of every person to belong, as well as preying on the need to be special.

And so, even though we may not want to admit it, in the short span of recorded history, humans have changed very little. The world around us gives us new inputs that we must deal with, but we still go around satisfying our needs in our same old human ways.

The fundamental difference is the virtual space human now occupy. We can talk to people around the world all at once at light speed. That means millions of permutations of Maslow in the virtual world from other people, or from programs to which we assign human traits.

How humans interact and what people do naturally to create comfort in times of stress have remained fundamentally consistent through the ages. That's why it is possible to codify the means whereby you can get someone to do what you want in an amazing spectrum of circumstances. In this book, we insisted that you can only master the ability to get someone to do what you want if you understand the operation of the two primary social drives in human beings: the need to belong and the need to differentiate one's self from the crowd.

Your success relative to others involves moving them up and down the tiers of these two needs by using the methods and strategies of interrogators. By applying the skills in the book, you can achieve an even greater success: you can help yourself understand your own needs and wants.

Everything we talked about applies to you as well as your targets. If you need to belong, use the tools to find common ground with people around you, and help them understand who you are. If you need to differentiate, you can choose to participate in groups where you have extraordinary expertise.

The greatest lesson in this book may be applying the section on paring options to your own life and understanding when you are using the Landrum factor on yourself. Remove that limiting practice, and you greatly expand your options for fulfilling your Maslow needs.

Manipulating people to do what you want takes cooperation, and there is always the element of unpredictability because you naturally project parts of yourself onto someone else. We all do it. So, the best application of this book may be to yourself.