the ultimate taboo

»The real truths are heresies.
They cannot be spoken.
Only discovered, whispered, and perhaps read.«
Naval Ravikant

Do you believe that »knowledge is power«? More often than you think, it makes you powerless.

Do you believe that information is inherently good and useful? That, too, is a mistake.

There is nothing mysterious about disinformation, it is everywhere. One particularly fascinating and far-reaching form is Qualitative-Passive Disinformation: those affected (and that includes almost everyone, in one way or another) are unaware of their vulnerability.

This creates the simplest and most effective form of power – and, at the same time, the main cause of organizational degeneration: if you do not notice an influence, you cannot resist it.

This phenomenon is radically simple — and remains so as long as you stick to the basics. Radical simplicity is, in fact, the essential precondition for addressing it effectively.

It is relatively easy to grasp, but exploiting it in others is ethically questionable. So prepare yourself for the mother of taboos.

On the one hand, the publication of The Ultimate Taboo also breaks it (at least if you read and understand it).
On the other hand, withholding it would only preserve harmful information asymmetries — and information suppression hardly suits the Internet age.

Not everyone will welcome this book. But are the critics truly well-intentioned, or merely protecting their own exploitable playgrounds (and cognitive dissonances)? From that perspective, the issue is inherently disruptive.

My aim is to make your first encounter with the subject as straightforward as possible: this book offers a simple and, I hope, highly engaging introduction to a very sensitive topic. Numerous examples illustrate one of the most significant — yet best hidden — weaknesses of human thinking. Once you recognize it, you can also use it.

The deliberate use of literal quotations serves a clear purpose: to distinguish my work from that of others. My criteria for selection were, besides accessibility, above all conciseness, entertainment value, and originality of the sources. I cannot, however, guarantee the latter: the quoted authors may not always be the first originators of the ideas (malicious tongues claim that the history of science is, above all, a history of intellectual theft; quite a few publications consist largely of disguised quotations). Still, these literal reproductions both acknowledge others’ contributions and highlight their limitations.

Even if some of the examples are already familiar to you — don’t miss the forest for the trees.

Enjoy the read!