Admit it… You have always been curious.

You look at a Chinese restaurant, or watched the latest anime and thought to yourself, “how do I read that strange alphabet? It looks like a bunch of magic spells!

And you can’t help but wonder, “If I am able to read those letters, will it enable me to do magic? or perform powerful ninja techniques?”

How do I even start?

Well this guide is meant to teach the basics of reading these mystical symbols.

By the end of this guide, you should at least understand the basics and start the process of unlocking your mind. You probably will NOT perform mystical ninja moves, but you will probably “level up” your logic skills and change the way you perceive the world.

The first step you need to consider is how to NOT read Chinese. If you are reading this in English, you are probably familiar with how phonetic alphabets work. Chinese is NOT a fully phonetic alphabet (more on this later) and you need to change your mentality in learning how to read it.

Why should you do this? It is actually an ancient puzzle game waiting to be solved. Unlocking this mentality will help you look at the world differently.

The second step is to learn how to identify what type of Chinese Character you are trying to read, there are three types (not the official name, but ones I will be using to simplify the learning process.

The three types of characters:

The radical (as in “from the root): These are stand-alone characters that is usually a picture. An example of this is which means “horse”. Look at the character and see that it looks like a horse, with it four legs and a flowing mane.

馬

At the end of this article, I will list some common radical types and their meaning and pronunciation

The second type is the semi-phonetic character.

In mandarin horse is pronounced as “ma3” (third tone).

You know what else is pronounced “ma?”

Mother 媽媽

To scold 駡

The question particle 嗎

Note: I will not go into the pronunciation of tones, that is whole different topic but just understand that the pronunciation is different）

While not used in normal conversation the phrase “mother scolded the horse” is written as:

媽媽駡馬

This is pronounced:

Ma1 ma1 ma4 ma3

Bonus: The same phrase can be changed into a question by adding the question particle shown above,

媽媽駡馬嗎

Ma1 ma1 ma4 ma3 ma(neutral)?

Again, there will be more examples at the appendix

These types of Chinese characters encompass about a third of all Character Types. Patterns can then be recognized

The third type is the “logogram” where it is a logic game, that has no connection to the phonetic sound. Here is one example:

我, which means (me or I)

我 pronounced as (wo) and has no phonetic elements and is purely a logical phenomenon.

我 is comprised of two components手 (hand) and 戈 (a type of spear)—no need to know how it sounds like. A sense of self is shown as having your own autonomy by holding up a spear with your hand. Think of this the next time you think who you are (and define your own boundaries).

More than half of all Chinese characters are this type, and you do not even need to know the pronunciation.

That is, the two basic steps on how to read Chinese. The mentality, and the identification.

Just imagine using philosophy and logic just to write things!!

Lastly, learning how to read these characters is a good way to delve into the question of what language is, and how to express language. It is so utterly alien to people who speak a language like English to encounter these logic games in a language, and the mind can be opened up to new possibilities by thinking differently. Plus, you can impress your friends too!!

Next time, when you go to a Chinese restaurant, watch the latest anime, or even encounter something written in this wonderful alphabet, it will not be intimidating anymore.

Instead of being confused by what it is going on, you will now be able to look at things differently and adapt when needed.

Do the work, get curious, become a student of philosophy and language. These are the first steps on the long journey to become a Ninja master.

A world of the mystical arts and thousands of years of history awaits.

I recommend looking up his LinkedIn for good content on negotiations in general: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anilmenghani/

Originally cut from my NUS-UCLA program’s negotiations class, he was cut not only due to time and world length but also because I lacked the proper tools necessary to describe what happened during his negotiation.

However, because of the symposium, I had a clearer understanding, and fit one of the missing pieces of the puzzle of what happened.

Count Raymond of Toulouse was the only one of the Crusades leaders to not swear an oath to Emperor Alexios, which was extremely unusual. Not many Latin military leaders managed to get the blessing of the Eastern Roman Emperor let alone support without swearing the oath.  

However, Count Raymond got not only the blessing from Emperor Alexis to go through his empire but also the same promises of logistical aid that the other crusaders got from the emperor. 

Rather than swearing the standard oath Count Raymond instead swore a pledge of friendship that included no attacking any Roman assets and to “return any territory gained from the campaign to the Empire.” One big difference in this agreement is that Count Raymond did not get any gifts from the Emperor. But this did not matter, Count Raymond did not need any of it, nor did he desire it. 

He simply wanted to “go out with a bang “at the end of his career”

Before we talk about how this was a factor in his negotiations, we need to go into the background of Count Raymond of Toulouse.

What set him apart from the other Crusade leaders was not only his advanced age (was easily the oldest Crusade leader) but also his immense wealth and sheer number of troops. 

He had the largest host out of all of the Crusaders by far, and he carried with him the most wealth and experience out of all the Crusaders during the first Crusade, as well as the most influence—even more influence than the younger brother of the King of France. 

With Modern ears, when we hear the word “France” we often think of the centralized modern nation-state of France. However, the Kingdom of France back in this period was anything but centralized, it is quite the opposite. Not only did the king of France have very low crown authority, but each region was constantly shifting rulership between different counts, dukes, and barons, who constantly warred with each other (which was one of the factors for the crusade, to begin with, Pope Urban II wanted Christendom to simply stop fighting each other).    

In addition to essentially being different countries, each region also has different languages, customs, and even cultures and fighting styles.  

If the average Parisian from this time period were to travel to Toulouse, where Count Raymond is the lord of, he or she would have great difficulty communicating with each other.  Why? That is because inhabitants of Toulouse speak a very different language from Parisian French.  Instead, they speak a language called Occitan. 

This region is known as the “Languedoc Region” meaning “language of the Occitanians”

The Occitanians were a completely different ethnic group from the people from Paris, and although they nominally swore fealty to the King of France, the King’s power was so weak that Count Raymond was the de facto “King of Occitania.”

He got this title not only through birthright but a lifetime of statecraft (as in fighting rivals and being a shrewd diplomat).

In addition to his skill as a statesman in Occitania, He is also related to the nobility of eastern Spain through marriage and friendship. Plus, the Occitanian language was more closely related to the eastern Iberian Kingdoms than it was to Parisian French, which made them have more affinity with each other.  

As stated in my previous essay (El Cid lived around this period as well), Spain simply did not exist and was a collection of different independent kingdoms, duchies, counties, emirates, and sultanates.

The Hispanic Peninsula was in a state of constant war with Christians struggling against the Muslims (and each other) and the Muslims doing much of the same while fighting off the North African Emirates from time to time as well).  

Count Raymond was a veteran of the Reconquista due to his close ties to eastern Iberia and participated in several wars there on the side of his “Spanish” (Aragonese and Catalonian) allies.  

He saw his fight as a noble fight defending the borders of Christendom against the encroachment of Islamic Invaders. 

As a result, he is a grizzled veteran who has faced a lifetime of warfare and became the powerful “King of Occitania.”  

By the time he arrived in Constantinople, he was an aged warrior well advanced in not only age but also had a lifetime of experience fighting and managing a territory. He was a grizzled old man (who wore an eyepatch) who had already fought in many wars and was just ready to die in the Holy Land fighting to his last breath in an attempt to free the birthplace of his Lord and Savior or die trying. He was essentially the “perfect” archetype of the crusader and this was pretty much his only goal in the entire armed pilgrimage.  

In addition, his advanced age made him a very mature leader who prioritized comradery, honor, and piety compared to the younger leaders we saw earlier who were more like adventurers than statemen.  

Emperor Alexios knows all about this of course and had him come in. The Count arrived in Constantinople without any drama or any sort of issue, which was a testament to the discipline of his army.  

The Negotiation Starts

Now the negotiation starts. 

Alexios first starts off offering him the standard agreement that all Latin Mercenaries had to swear when fighting for the empire, which is to swear an oath of fealty to the Emperor, return any land to the empire, and of course not attack any imperials.

To Alexios’s surprise, Count Raymond just refused outright.  

They started chatting for a bit (via translation of course) and Alexios simply got a sense of who this person is. He was different from the others. He was not interested in worldly gain, and he simply came to fight and simply die in the Holy Land, perhaps for atonement for whatever reason.  

  What Emperor Alexios had in front of him was a wise old warrior, who was simply not interested in any more worldly gain (he already had enough), and came essentially for atonement, and to have one last campaign before his death. 

That being said, Alexios saw this and decided that it might be a better idea to give him a customized deal since it was clear that Count Raymond had no interest in attacking fellow Christians, and was solely focused on the holy land.  

Eventually, the topic of Bohemond came up and Count Raymond noted he did not Trust Bohemond and considered him a rouge and a trickster.    

At this point, we needed to remember that Bohemond and the Emperor personally fought each other on opposite sides of the battlefield during precious Norman Invasions of Greece and the Emperor also did not trust the wily Norman as well.

Seeing that there was common ground in this meeting, the Emperor came up with an idea.

In a stroke of creativity, Emperor Alexios decided to give a counteroffer: he did not have to swear the standard oath that Bohemond, Godfrey, and Hugh had to swear. Rather, he accepted Count Raymond’s offer of honor and friendship that he kept on asking for. Raymond of course promised to hand any territory back to the Empire and not attack any Imperial entities in the process—which is what friends do.

At this point, Alexios accepted this and told him that they would be friends and Raymond’s army will be supplied and backed up for the campaign.  

This was exactly what Raymond wanted to begin with, he simply wanted to establish a bond of honor and friendship with the emperor and have an ally that would have his back when fighting in alien territory, against an alien army, and in an alien climate. The Count got his local guide and full backing for the final campaign in his life. 

A deal was struck—it was perfect for Raymond.

Ironically, it was also perfect for Alexios as well. The Emperor did not have to give out any titles, a salary, or drain the treasury even more with lavish gifts. This sign of friendship turned out to be one of the cheapest, most efficient deals the Emperor ever made in his entire career. And to Count Raymond, this sign of friendship was one of the biggest gains that he has ever gotten in his career as well. Without conceding anything, Count Raymond got the full backing of the Eastern Roman Empire to help him on his final campaign. For this first crusade, it will be Count Raymond’s Last Crusade as well. 

Almost immediately, the Empire then started to ferry Count Raymond and his entire army across the Bosporus onto Asia Minor, where he would combine his forces with the other Armed Pilgrims, and finally head out on the Quest.  

The Holy Land Beckons!

Analysis: The Power of Friendship!

In the previous cases, it was pretty clear what kind of relationship that each side had in mind. 

The pattern was simple: a minor lord who did not have much power in Western Europe goes to Constantinople, sees the grandeur and power that Eastern Rome has, and then swears the standard oath that pretty much ALL foreign contractors swear to the Emperor.

It used to be so clear. 

However, in previous cases, these foreign contractors that the Empire hired to fight for them as glorified mercenaries were never that powerful to begin with, and tended to be landless nobles who were younger sons, or even just plain adventurers who fought well.

In the history of Alexios Komnenos’ career, he has never had to deal with a count with as much wealth, power, and military prowess as Count “The King of Occitania” Raymond of Toulouse. 

There was simply no precedent.  

On the flip side, there was simply no reason that someone who was a de facto “King” of an area would have to negotiate the same way Count Raymond had to. This was groundbreaking new territory.  

However, there was one factor that neither side had expected to help: The power of friendship.

When negotiating, it is sometimes easy to forget that this is a discussion to iron out a deal, not a battlefield. It is very unwise to metaphorically “kill” the other side in an attempt to gain.  

However, what is often missing in negotiations is the desire to build a relationship that extends beyond this one deal.

The previous leaders that Emperor Alexios had to deal with all had one thing in common: they were the younger sons who saw an opportunity to head out to the east and try their luck in obtaining more power and glory as well as go on a crusade that will wipe out their sins.

The case of Count Raymond however was different, as an older man he already had his share of power and glory, and simply wanted to live out the last years of his life heeding the call of Pope Urban II and a genuine desire to free the Holy Land from non-Christian powers who were exploiting the local native Christian, populations as well as to turn the tide of the fortunes of a beleaguered Eastern Roman Empire.  

He was a different sort of man who already had it all anyway, and one more friend on the way there was not going to hurt anything.

So when Count Raymond asked for friendship and partnership, Emperor Alexios gave it to him.  

Taking a page from Anil’s presentation, the first three tips were followed.

 1. It was not a friendship, and Friendship was pursued.  

2. They both did not rush too close and sought to understand each other.

3. Sometimes it is not about money, it is about the value of the intangible things.  

Credit to: Anil Menghani

When two really powerful men who only saw money as tools rather than the end goal meet up, sometimes, instead of transactions, value can be created instead.  

Now that the most powerful leader of the First Crusade successfully negotiated a crossing onto Asia Minor, what will happen next? Read on

Background on the next two (Godfrey de Bouillon and Bohemond di Taranto)

The next two to arrive were arguably going to be the most difficult to negotiate with since they are not only infamous rouges, but skilled and savvy politicians on their own right.

Godfrey of Bouillon was a highly successful Duke from Lorraine (encompassing territory that is now modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), which was contested ground between the Kingdom of France and the German Holy Roman Empire.  Thus, it was a battleground duchy not only between two higher political entities, but also people groups, with constant clashes and skirmishes in the area since the borders were so undefined.  Godfrey therefore is used to a life full of conflict, which differed from Prince Hugh’s more pampered life as a prince. 

Bohemond of Taranto (in modern day Southern Italy), although arguably one of the poorest of the Crusaders and having numerically the smallest army made up for these shortcomings by having the most experienced army that saw action all throughout the eastern Mediterranean.  Bohemond spoke fluent Greek, fought against Alexios before in previous Italo-Norman invasions of the Balkans (yes Bohemond and Alexios fought against each other in battle before), and had an intimate knowledge of literal Byzantine Politics through his extensive experiences and contacts in various wars around the Eastern Mediterranean.

While these two crusaders differed greatly from one another, they share things in common: being tough as nails, wily politicians, high ambitions, and hell bent on going eastwards. 

Now this is where the weirdness starts…

What happened on the way to Constantinople was not clear (as the sources seem to contradict each other) but what was clear was that both Godfrey and Bohemond were in the Balkans at around the same time. Many sources indicated that they may even had a correspondence going on during this time but that was not clear as well.

What was clear is that Godfrey was the one that arrived in Constantinople second after count Hugh.  However once Godfrey arrived, he did a few strange actions.  Even before any negotiation was attempted, Godfrey just camped his massive army in front of Constantinople in an apparent show of force.

This went on for quite some time, until Alexios sent Hugh of Vermandois and other Latins in his employ to try and convinced him to come to Constantinople to talk.

What happed next is a (very) simplified explanation of what happened next: Sending Hugh did not work and Godfrey essentially insulted Hugh as being an Imperial lacky and kept his army in battle formations.  In response, Alexios suddenly revoked the blanket license granted to Godfrey’s army to buy supplies and stopped giving them other support which led to Godfrey’s army facing dwindling supplies. With this prospect, Godfrey had to make a choice on what to do next, and suddenly attacked and pillaged the outskirts of Constantinople.

The Imperial Army fought back and ultimately won but had heavy casualties on both sides.

With dwindling supplies and the increasingly desperate situation of starvation approaching, Godfrey decided to negotiate in order to avoid what is turning into an increasingly lose-lose situation and do something to improve the situation.

So in order to start the negotiation, as per custom, hostages were exchanged.  Alexios actually gave not only Godfrey gifts but also a hostage: The Imperial Heir John Komnenos, the future Emperor John II. With this in place Godfrey met personally with the Emperor and decided to negotiate. The result was clear: in this situation Godfrey swore to the standard oaths all Latins contractors/mercenaries swore (the same one Count Hugh swore to Alexios) and was even given an Imperial salary for months (something that Hugh did not get).

Godfrey then was ferried over to Asia minor to join Hugh’s army in Asia minor. What happened in the negotiations were not very clear due to conflicting records, but what was clear is that Godfrey swore the oath, got many gifts, a salary, and was resupplied for the rest of the journey.

So, what happened and why did Godfrey, a Duke who is infamously aggressive and warlike agree to the terms of the Emperor and became an “Imperial Lacky” that he disparaged Count Hugh for being?  The answer lies in a concept called BATNA.

BATNA is an acronym for “Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement” and the key to understanding the situation lies in this concept.  While it might have been fascinating to listen in to any surviving transcripts of the exact negotiation that happened during this time, unfortunately recording devices were not invented yet and nobody knows what happened during this one-on-one meeting.

What was recorded were acts of aggression that Geoffrey publicly displayed and enacted, the exchange of hostages, the commission of an Imperial salary, and a public declaration of the stand oath that Latins swear to the Roman Emperor. 

While we do not the details and nuances of what exactly happened, we can infer via BATNA the motivations of each party and how they could have come to such an agreement.   

For Godfrey the BATNA was to essentially go find some other way to the holy land (but in disgrace and with more difficulty) if he cannot pass the toll both that is Constantinople, or simply to pack up and go home. While Godfrey could do this, he preferred not to and tried to get as much as he could out of the situation.  In fact for someone who had literally walked thousands of miles, moving forward was better than any other alternative.  Both sides knew this, and both sides attempted to go into a ZOPA territory (a Zone of Possible Agreement). Again, while it was not clear what took place during the negotiation, the following could be discerned: Godfrey was in previous contact with Bohemond (who was for whatever reason taking his time in the Balkans) and there could be the possibility of an agreement with Bohemond that they could join forces and attack Constantinople instead and dethrone the emperor.

With prospects of dwindling food supplies, Godfrey decided to negotiate since time was not on his side, he did not speak any Greek, and he suffered casualties attacking Imperial territory in an attempt to gain supplies. Theoretically he could have leaked information about Bohemond’s (supposed) plan to Alexios and see if he could get a better offer. Godfrey managed to get many concessions from Alexios, including an official imperial salary as well as restoration of supplies, gifts, transportation to Asia Minor and support for the campaign.  Whatever the case an agreement was created and Geoffrey got as much as he could from this negotiation.

Lessons from Godfrey

If we were to look at the differences in negotiation between Hugh and Godfrey, it is apparent that not only were they vastly different people with different personalities, but also required different approaches when it comes to negotiation. However, one important lesson to be learned from this stark contrast is the significance of understanding each party's perspective and catering to their desires during a negotiation.

For example, if we are to look at Hugh, Hugh was the younger brother of the King of France and seemed to be pampered by this experience. On the other hand, Godfrey was Duke of Lorraine, a contested territory between France and Germany who no doubt saw a lot of conflict and intrigue simply maintaining his position. Alexios simply could not use the same tactics on such a different personality. Out of all the leaders on this crusade, Godfrey was the only army to attack Imperial Territory and was no doubt the most aggressive leader to negotiate with so far. But one thing that we can discern from this is that the negotiation started even before talking face to face, and it is important to know not only your own position, but the position of the other side as well.

Another lesson that could be learned from this round of negotiation is that some difficult personalities that are more aggressive require aggression in kind. When negotiating with this type of personality not only is background and character important, but also payment in kind as well as knowing who has the advantage when it comes to time. Godfrey simply had less time than Alexios in the negotiations simply because he was leading an army on the march and armies march on their stomaches; Alexios in comparison has a massive empire under his control and could simply walk to his (well defended and supplied) storehouses at any time.

Both sides knew this, which is why Godfrey camped out in a show of force outside the Capital city to begin with—no doubt to get more concessions out of Alexios. Which Alexios promptly responded in kind by cutting off Godfrey’s supplies, which reduced Godfrey’s time even more, it became apparent after Godfrey initiated the said lose-lose situation that while Alexios is in a negative situation, Godfrey is in an even worse position as he was running out of food, time, and leadership capital. It was in the interest of both sides to negotiate a more productive path forward.

What we in the modern day can learn from this is that aggressive people require aggression in kind in order to temper the playing field and to always look at the position and mentality of the other side.  If you take a look at the actions of Alexios, while he could have wiped out Godfrey at any time, he chose not to since it was better to have them fight his enemies (the Turks) than have them fight the Empire. 

One thing to remember in this phase is that just because you are in a bad position yourself does not meant the other side is in a better position. Fawning and keeling over is NOT a good negotiation tactic; sometimes strength is needed in order to get a better outcome. However just because someone is an “enemy” now does not mean that they are an enemy later. Sometimes it is important to extend a metaphorical olive branch in order to move forward with negotiations, even if the olive branch is lending your own son and heir as a hostage.

Timing is everything and one must possess a keen awareness on a macro level that goes beyond each individual tactic. One thing that is also apparent from this set of negotiations is that negotiations started even BEFORE the two men spoke to each other face to face. The fact that there was a show of force, that led to a revocation of trade, which lead to a skirmish shows that what you do BEFORE talking with someone is just as important (sometimes even more so) than sitting down and talking with them.

While looking at Godfrey, it was apparent that he knew that his time horizon was shorter than Alexios and needed as much leverage as he could (“I need to make a deal now or face starvation!”). While Godfrey’s goal was to probably cross into Anatolia as an independent lord, he knew that doing was pretty much impossible, and he needed supplies and support in such an inhospitable, alien territory with enemies he has never fought against before and a completely different environment compared to his native land (just compare Belgium to Southern Turkey right down to language, food, customs, and even weather).

What can be learned from Godfrey is that in some cases (especially if you are at a massive disadvantage) it might be a good idea to start the “negotiations” even before meeting in order to create as much leverage as you can even before sitting down for the “actual” negotiation itself. However, the biggest mistake the Godfrey made is that he overplayed his aggression to the point that his army was starving.

Again, the old adage “know thyself.” What can be learned from this negotiation that patience is indeed a virtue, and negotiations often begin long before any physical meetings take place; negotiation often takes place via the actions taken place and enacted even before a word is even spoken. There are many lessons that could be learned from this episode and much can be used for future negotiations.

Bohemond of Taranto

The next up to negotiate with the Emperor was Bohemond of Taranto, an infamous rouge and arguably the most difficult one to deal with. Bohemond apparently not only spoke fluent Greek but had intimate knowledge of the politics of the region in both Christian and Muslim circles and already even had allies amongst several power brokers within the Empire itself, for example, his half-brother Guy was serving Alexios (who defected years ago in a previous war).

Bohemond also of course spoke (Norman) French, Latin, and Italian, and was an astute political animal when it comes to knowledge of the goings on in of various realms. His lieutenant, his nephew Tancred, apparently even spoke Arabic. His sudden appearance in Constantinople after a long delay could be interpreted in various ways. After spending more than six months going across the Balkans (which is much too slow for a journey for that short of a distance) he suddenly sped towards Constantinople and went straight to Alexios. 

We do not know why he had a sudden change of temperament but some have speculated that that he felt like he not only is running out of time trying to find more allies in a potential coup, but also lost his biggest potential co-conspirator that potentially already leaked his plan.  

While we may never know what his change of heat is, some scholars and historians speculated that he could better his position under loyalty to the emperor.  The Emperor is no fool and has a track record of enriching various previous former enemies in the past (evidenced by the Empire’s habits of employing Normans (such as Bohemond’s half-brother Guy) who switched sides during a losing war over a decade ago.  Alexios did not discriminate and was an equal opportunity employer, religion nor race mattered not and he was known to take in not only fellow (schismatic) Christians such as the Latins, but also Islamic Turkish nomads, if it made sense for him to do so, despite all fighting him decades ago.   

Whatever the reason, upon arriving to Constantinople, Bohemond proclaimed that he has always supported Alexios in his call to arms and was willing to swear an oath to him. However, he did try to squeeze a few things out of the deal, such as being proclaimed as the leader of the Latin army by Alexios, and for the position of Great Domestic of the East, an Imperial title that will give him absolute authority in Anatolia should it all be recaptured.  Just imagine having absolute authority in a land mass comprising most of modern-day Turkey!  

While surprised by this sudden turn of events Alexios then simply answered “The time for that has not come yet; but by your energy and reputation and above all by your fidelity it will come ere long.” (Alexiad p189) Essentially a vague and noncommittal answer, and then led him to a room full of treasure, probably gesturing something along the lines of “hint-hint.” Bohemond then promptly swore the oath and from that time onwards (until later in the campaign) worked with Alexios to the point of helping Alexios with future negotiations with the other Latin leaders.

Takeaways from Bohemond

Out of all the negotiations between the Crusades leaders and Alexios, I found the one between Bohemond and Alexios to be not only the most interesting and educational one, but also one that we all can learn the most from. One note of interest is that Bohemond was the only one of the Crusades leaders to speak Greek and had no need for an interpreter in order to personally, negotiate with the emperor.

The fact that Bohemond even knew what “Great Domestic of the East” even was speaks volumes about not only his intimate knowledge of the politics of the region in general but intimate knowledge of his “opponent” as well to get as much possible out of the negotiation.

Bohemond’s BATNA

Bohemond clearly knows that his BATNA of simply returning home to Italy (where he was disinherited by his family and was working as a mercenary) is nowhere near his potential reward submitting to the Emperor and finding new opportunities in the east; Bohemond clearly knows that there is a power vacuum in Anatolia that is worth taking advantage of that the other, “fresh off the boat” Europeans did not even realize.

Intimate knowledge counts

There is a lesson to be learned from all of this intimate knowledge—the more you know the more interesting the negotiation. Case in point: knowing the language needed to negotiate without an interpreter is a VERY important leverage point to have, having first-hand experience in the area always trumps wealth and power, and sometimes it is not the number of resources you have, but rather making the most out of what you have.

It is also worth noting that opponents are never set-in stone, just because one day someone is your enemy does not mean that someday you will be taking an oath and work under the same person. One more aspect that could be discerned is when you do not want to give a promise, sometimes it is better to leave a vague answer and deflect, just like Alexios’ answer and distraction. Just like other general advice in life, do not burn bridges down and keep avenues of relationships open and do not keep any promises you cannot keep.

However as will be shown by the next article is that while an agreement was made, Alexios still did not fully trust Bohemond and had many “insurance policies” against him just in case as a part of the future negotiation.  Just because a deal is made now does not mean that it can be “reinterpreted” later.  They might have one goal right now, but as the saying goes, “the only constant is change.” 

Over here there doesn’t seem to be much food outside of the usual Argentinian/Western European food (more postings coming up later).  Which is NOT a big deal of itself, since all of this is delicious to begin with. 

However today I encountered the biggest surprise I have seen so far.

I found a food truck (trailer really) that sold Shawarma.  I spoke to the lady, and she quickly figured out that I was not a local.

We switched to English, and she told me that the bread she was making the Shawarma called Lavash.

I asked if she was Armenian, and she told me that she was Armenia but originally from Lebanon.  Her family went to Lebanon to escape the Armenian Genocide back during the First World War, and moved to Argentina when there was a war in Lebanon decades ago. 

She mentioned that she not only spoke English, but Arabic, Armenian, French, Turkish and a few other languages and of course Spanish.  I had no idea she was Armenian since she spoke Spanish in the distinct Argentinian accent (she called out “caballero” to someone and said it in the distinct Argentinian pronunciation that sounded more like “caba-sheh-ro”).

Anyway, we spoke for a bit, and I mentioned that I was in the process of trying to help out some Syrian Christians who are stranded in Indonesia (More on that later) and some of them were Armenian families. 

We connected for a bit.  I plan on coming back to not only support her, but also because the Shawarma was really good.  Here are some pictures of said food.

Will take better pictures next time!

Hugh of Vermandois

The first leader to physically arrive in Constantinople was Hugh of Vermandois, who was the younger brother of the current King of France, but had one of the smaller armies during the entire First Crusade. Sensing an opportunity to capture a “big fish” who was the younger brother of the King of France and therefore an influential leader in the entire movement, Alexios sent imperial agents to escort him personally to Constantinople.

Count Hugh’s route in Magenta (courtesy of wikimedia)

Count Hugh was shipwrecked off the coast of Epiros (modern day Albania) after he sailed from Italy and after facing this hardship, he welcomed the sight of an approaching imperial envoy. He leapt at their invitation to escort him and his personal entourage to Constantinople while his army waited outside. 

While in Constantinople, Alexios dazzled Count Hugh with the typical grandeur of Constantinople while keeping him under close watch by Imperial Agents. Hugh was effectively under a loose house arrest without even noticing that his freedom was taken away from him with all the feasts, sightseeing (The Hagia Sophia was just as much a pilgrimage site as Jerusalem or the Vatican was), and other forms of entertainment that was lavished on the King’s brother. One scholar ever described that “Hugh was so impressed and comfortable that he did not even realize that he was under de-facto house arrest.”

It was after this experience of extreme of shock and hospitality that Hugh was then called in to personally negotiate with the Emperor. The result was a staggering success for Alexios.

Hugh agreed to swear the standard oath Latin mercenaries employed by the empire swore, not to cause any damage to the empire, and to cede any territory he captured to Imperial agents in return for friendship, treasure, support from the Imperial Army, and supplies for the crusade.

This was exactly what Emperor Alexios wanted to accomplish to begin with, and he was extremely lucky to find someone like Hugh, who is not only of a very high social rank, but also someone who was “easy” to negotiate with. 

Hugh then stayed in Constantinople as his guest and even helped Alexios in his other negotiations with the other Crusade leaders.

Analysis

If there is one aspect that we can learn from this episode (while there are many) from this encounter, is the famous Sunzi adage of “Know they enemy, and know thyself.” Alexios knew himself and the resources being Clothed in the Purple entails, including all the resources that Empire entails whether it be the treasure, spiritual leverage, being on his own turf etc. all his own strengths.

If there is one takeaway from this encounter it is to never forget who you are and what your strengths are.  Yes, sometimes we are focusing on our weakness and if we are in a disadvantaged position.  The mistake though is if we are preoccupied with our weaknesses then we can’t use our strengths to our advantages. 

In the case Above, if Emperor Alexios focused on the precarious position he is in (as explained in Part 1) and “played defense” he simply would have been at a disadvantage.  If Count Hugh focused on his strengths (being the first to arrive, being the younger brother of the King of France, having a sizable army and treasury etc.) he would have probably been able to get a better deal from the Emperor for himself.

To negotiate effectively, it is important to understand the other person’s position as well as your own position. Emperor Alexios had and used the advantage that his position entails by receiving information about all of the leaders from the beginning as a part of a pattern of constantly sending spies on intelligence gathering missions constantly scouring different parts of the world for the latest news and intelligence. As one of the most powerful monarchs in the world, Alexios needed to have knowledge about everything happening around the world at all times. He probably knew about Count Hugh's personality and status very well in advance of personally meeting him.

Emperor Alexios knew that Count Hugh was the younger brother of the King of France, and without a doubt lived in the shadow of his more illustrious older brother.  In the entire culture of Western European Feudalism, the position of King is a MUCH higher ranking than the position of a simple Count, and usually the “spares sons” of these families felt left out when they did not inherit the highest positions.  Alexios knows this because while he is the emperor, he himself was NOT the youngest son in his family and knows all about the family dynamic of being a younger son.    

While it is important to be mindful of your weaknesses, just be mindful of them but focus on your core strength. Another thing that we need to learn is when negotiating, it is ALWAYS better to use your “home territory” to your advantage. “Home territory” does not have to be Constantinople, the “city of the world’s desires” but you can take stock of where you are and how you can approach a negotiation.  Look through your strengths and see where it can lead you and how it can work out to your advantage. 

Alexios knew that Hugh was a stranger in a strange land, who does not speak the language, who never saw such a cosmopolitan city, and is far away from his native France, and was about to meet a high ranking Emperor; but despite all this, Alexios still made Hugh comfortable and relaxed. Hugh was dazzled with feasts, gifts, tours, and comfort. We need to remember that negotiations do not have to be tense affairs; rather we can learn from this example that the adage “killing them with kindness” is a validly equal tactic in negotiations.  Not all negotiations have to be difficult.

From the mind of Count Hugh, he was simply glad to go on a journey and see everything.  Travel was a difficult affair during the 12th century and even someone of noble birth like him did not travel much.  He was simply content to see the sights and go on what he viewed to be a noble mission for not only the remission of his sins but to also a pilgrimage.  He was simply awed by the exotic locales and customs that were different from his native France.  At this time, Paris was a backwater compared to the megalopolis that is Constantinople, the “city of the world’s desire.” 

A modern equivalent:

To tie in a more contemporary equivalent, everyone who has ever done business in China (or anywhere else in Asia really) should have seen this before.  The Western approach to negotiation is much different from eastern approaches and this is no exception.

Eastern Negotiation formula:

When the foreign party arrives in China, they are treated with great respect and hospitality. This includes a grand banquet in their honor, along with other celebrations such as performances, various entertainments, and drinking. Although many Westerners might consider these festivities to be a pointless waste of time, the actual negotiation takes place after the entertainment.  In the Chinese mind, all the pleasantries are a part of the negotiation process. 

The most crucial time to finalize a deal is after the pleasantries when both sides go through this “ritual” of sorts. 

The negotiation style in the Chinese culture shows some similarities to the approach taken by Emperor Alexios when negotiating with Count Hugh.  Which is to be expected since the Eastern Roman Empire had a longer, imperial history while the Kingdom of France was considered a new kingdom of the time that is still trying to define itself. 

To be continued…

As we will see in the next part, the method of negotiation in Western Europe is MUCH different than in the east as the next two leaders, Godfrey of Bouillon and Bohemond Di Taranto  prove to be MUCH more straightforward, aggressive, and got a different outcome than Count Hugh.

However, the Mandate of Heaven was not an unconditional right to rule. If the ruler failed to govern wisely, caused chaos and suffering, and was not able to provide for his subjects then it was believed that heaven itself would withdraw their support, and the ruler would lose the Mandate of Heaven.

This loss of heavenly support would manifest in natural disasters, rebellions, and other signs of chaos and instability as well as being unable to maintain order in society.   In other words, if the government of the emperor was ever unable to maintain stability, provide relief for disasters, and is any way disharmonious, then he has essentially lost support. 

This is tied in with the Dynastic cycle. 

The concept of the Dynastic Cycle refers to the pattern of rise and fall of Chinese dynasties. This cycle typically consisted of three phases: the rise of a new dynasty, a period of prosperity and stability, and then a decline and eventual collapse of the dynasty, followed by a period of chaos and instability before a new dynasty rises to power.

The rise of a new dynasty typically began with a period of upheaval, such as a rebellion or invasion, that overthrew the previous ruling dynasty. The new dynasty would then work to establish its legitimacy and consolidate its power, often through a period of reforms and economic development. This would be followed by a period of stability and prosperity, during which the dynasty would reach its peak of power and influence.

However, as time passed, the dynasty would often become corrupt and complacent, leading to a decline in governance and an increase in social and economic problems. This decline would eventually lead to internal unrest and external pressures, such as invasions by foreign powers or rebellion by discontented subjects. Eventually, the dynasty would collapse, and a new dynasty would rise to power, starting the cycle anew.

A famous example of this is immortalized in the book the Romance of Three Kingdoms, where the corrupt and ineffective Han Dynasty, after ruling for about four hundred years was simply unable to maintain harmony, preserve order, and act in a just manner.  After a period of intense corruption, scandal, and governmental infighting, this ruling Dynasty lost its legitimacy and people simply do not believe in it anymore. 

How is this relevant to the Silicon Valley Bank, Standard Bank, and Silicon Valley itself?

The answer to this is simply economics and the cycles that businesses, industries, whole countries, and even entire economic systems are not immune to.  In fact, my interest in economics was jump started by its resemblance to the rise and fall of not only Chinese Dynasties over millennia but also the rise and fall of various kingdoms, empires, businesses, and industries all around the world.  In essence, what pertains to the Han Dynasty also pertains to the Roman Empire, the Majapahit Empire, The Arab Caliphate, the Dutch Empire, the Mongol Empire, and British empire, Ford (and the rest of Detroit), Toyota, Facebook/Meta, and even the hegemony of Silicon Valley and its influence over innovation and the entire tech industry.   NOTHING is immune to this cycle, and looking at it can help us potentially prepare for the future.

Businesses come and go, and they have high points, and they have low points.  If a business is doing well, then it is competitive, it has a good culture, and is generally innovative.  The opposite is generally true, if a business fails to innovate and provide value in general then it essentially “lost the mandate of heaven.” 

Just note that this is not a spiritual or divine concept at all.  In fact this is purely a metaphorical concept that could explain the comings and goings of business, economic, and even governance cycles.  It is simply a general pattern that every single entity is not immune to. 

If you look at the past few years, silicon valley’s largest tech companies has been involved in all sorts of scandals, its leaders have been called to congress, and in the case of Twitter, was conquered outright by an outside force (think the Turks taking over Anatolia, the Germanic peoples taking over the Western Roman Empire, and the Manchus establishing the Qing Dynasty, the list goes on and on).   

The fall of Silicon Valley Bank came as a massive shock to those who are not paying attention.  While the exact details could not be predicted, those who have been seeing massive growth fueled by both the quantitative easing of the 2010s, and the massive stimulus packages that were given out by the government during the pandemic years are not surprised.  This is just a symptom of the underlying root cause, and more of this is going to happen. 

It is time to pay attention to cycles and we are in the end phase of the dynastic cycle

This is not always a bad thing and all we need to do is adapt.  To quote Game of Throne character Petyr Baelish , “Chaos is a ladder” During the aftermath of the fall of the Han Dynasty, there was a rise in massive opportunities that was unavailable during the height of the Han Dynasty.  In the ensuing Three Kingdoms period we need to look at the origin stories of the three Kings that rose in the Aftermath.  Liu Bei, the king of Shu was previously a sandal maker, and his prime minister Zhuge Liang (Kongming) was previously a peasant farmer.  Sun Quan’s father was a random soldier, and Cao Cao was a minor government official.

To give a more western example, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, new kingdoms set up by the various people groups were formed.  Which is why Modern Day France is now named “France” after the Frankish people, and not called Gaul anymore which was its name during the times of the Roman Empire.  The same thing can be said about the region of Lombardy in Italy since it was named after a Germanic group that had long beards (the langaz bardaz/langobards or the “long bearded ones.”)

We are in that time period right now.  The old order is crumbling and the time for innovation is ripe.  It is time more than ever to look at the world more innovatively and become one of these new insurgent groups. 

While not all groups are good (for example, the yellow turban rebels and the vandals were VERY destructive) some groups are worth looking into as examples (such as the band that eventually created the Frankish Renaissance during the time of Charlemagne in the aftermath of the fall of the Western Roman Empire or the innovations that the Three Kingdoms created in terms of technology and philosophy after the fall of the Han Empire). 

Echoes of the past can help us give a roadmap for the future, while nothing is ever certain, at least we can learn.  Historical heartbeats and cycles are almost always follow the same pattern and it is time to learn from the past—not to prevent bad outcomes but to learn, grow, and innovate as we ride the wave. 

When I was there, I had some exposure to the Mainland Chinese Educational system and to nobody’s surprise, they do not teach people how to write in english.

A new friend asked me how to write an essay so she could apply for Business Schools in the UK so I showed her what my brain goes through when I write something.

In the process I inadvertently created a guide to do this. I was just lucky that learned this as a child, but others never learned how to write well.

I have encountered time and time again that many people around the world simply do not have exposure on how to formulate thoughts, structure an essay, and then use words as comfortably as having a conversation.  So, I created this guide to help others do that, and I am sharing it here.

I have shared this basic guide with people from around the world, from East Asia, Central Asia, Africa, South America, and even with people from Southern California who simply never learned this method. 

Again, I personally like discussing this with anyone who asks me so feel free to reach out to me if any additional help is needed. 

Best of luck all you aspiring writers!!

This is the general anatomy of an essay:

Anatomy Of An Essay

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Useful ways to formulate thoughts for an essay:

Formulating Thoughts For An Essay

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The Specific example that I helped with:

Writing Eu Example Sample

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Prompts that can help you exercise these methods:

Ap United States History Exam Sample Responses

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Back then they did not see themselves as “Crusaders,” instead they saw themselves as “armed people going on a pilgrimage.”  Which brings me to my next point, the need to look at the mentality and getting into the heads of people that think differently from you is one of the first steps of negotiation.  This article is a good way to start doing that, by going into the heads of people that lived almost 900 years ago.    

This article was adapted from a 15 page paper I had to do for my MBA negotiations class.   The prompt was to create a 10 to 15 page paper and speak about a high level negotiation and identify specific techniques, tactics and other insights about that negation that we learned from the class.  Examples that Professor Chris Erickson encouraged us to do include the camp David accords, mergers between corporations, or any high-level negotiations we were personally involved in during our careers.  I chose to talk about the Crusades simply because it was so different than what my other classmates were doing and it was an example on how people in ages past were not that different from us.  I would like to show how human beings are the same no matter what era they lived in, and no matter the societal context. 

The general format of the series will be the following:  

The first part of this article will give a general background on the First Crusade and the geopolitical context that led to the Crusade happening in the first place. 

Once that is out of the way, I will give a summary of the negotiation of an individual negotiation as well as some takeaways from it.  I will sprinkle in both the concepts that was covered in the class, as well as some takeaways from my personal experience. 

Without further ado here is the first part of:

Byzantine Negotiations during the First Crusade

The First Crusade took place during an interesting time in history with major geopolitical changes occurring during the late 11th century. It was a time of massive social changes in both the eastern and western Christian world, as well as the western part of the Islamic world that led to the perfect storm for a movement like the Crusades to happen.

This article is not about First Crusade in general, but rather specifically the negotiations between the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire Alexios Komnenos, and the various army leaders of the First Crusade. For the average person who is not familiar with the First Crusade, many are unfamiliar with the fact that despite the sheer numbers of the crusaders and their camp followers were enough to cover miles of roads and often takes days to pass a single town, there was no single leader of the entire operation.  In fact there were several armies from various places in Europe, and they all spoke different languages and had different customs and cultures.  

While not apparent at the time, these negotiations will determine not only the nature of how the “great armed pilgrimage” and its leadership structure will function, but also how the future geopolitics of the region will develop.

The so called “People’s Crusade” will not be discussed since there were no negations with such a disorganized massive mob and the Empire just quickly ferried them over to Asia Minor without any negotiations.

The negotiations between Emperor Alexios and the leaders of the Crusaders were often overlooked in the public perceptions of the First Crusade, and this paper will describe the tactics used, and most importantly the outcome of such a massive movement that will shape the course of history that is still being felt to this day.

An Overview

Before we talk about the negotiations we need to talk about the nature of the Latin Crusaders and how they came from a variety of locations in western Europe and often spoke completely different languages and have different customs from each other.

Emperor Alexios Komnenos’ was the original impetus of the First Crusade since his original call for help from the west created a chain reaction that ultimately created this mass movement. What began as a calling for assistance from Pope Urban II for warriors to help him retake Anatolia (modern day Turkey) from various Turkic peoples eventually led to the Council of Clermont where Pope Urban called for a cessation in Western Christendom to stop fighting each other and instead help out a fellow Christian state in the East who had lost more than 70% of its territory over the past four hundred years, and was only left with the rump territories of modern day Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Istanbul (Constantinople)—this state was only hanging on by a thread in a struggle for existence.

Pope Urban II called for a “great armed pilgrimage” (the term “Crusade” was a later invention) that will help out the Eastern Christians. While much can be said about the conditions of the various people and regions, this series will focus on the negotiations, as well as the conditions, stakes, and tactics used between Emperor Alexios and a few leaders of the Crusade: Hugh of Vermandois, Godfrey De Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, and Raymond de Toulouse.

While there was traditionally a count of eight armies with eight respective leaders that negotiated with the Emperor, we will be focusing only on the first four that arrived to  Constantinople not only because it laid the groundwork for the negotiations from the others, but the negotiations with the latter three, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, and Raymond de Toulouse were arguably the most difficult ones and the aftermath led to more leverage towards Emperor Alexios.  The later leaders apparently swore fealty to the Emperor without too much incident.   

General Geopolitics

Before we jump into the actual negotiations, we need to look at the general geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean which changed remarkably during the late 11th century following the defeat of the Eastern Roman empire at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. After that battle, the geopolitics of the entire region was altered. What we know as modern-day Turkey was then known as Anatolia, and the eastern provinces were the easternmost remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire, which used to also consist of Egypt, Syria, and the western portions of Modern Day Iraq—all lost to the Arab Muslim invasions four hundred years earlier.

After that battle, the formerly secure eastern provinces were penetrated by nomadic Muslim Turks from the Turkish Seljuk Empire (who at this point conquered Persia and Mesopotamia (modern day Iran and Iraq) but could not penetrate Anatolia due to a secure defensive screen that the Eastern Roman empire created on several mountain ranges that separated Anatolia from the other side (Iraq, Syria, and Persia).

 After the Battle of Manzikert, Turkish nomads were free to simply migrate into Anatolia with no opposition and the general demographics of the region changed from a Christian Greek speaking region to an Islamic Turkish speaking one.

One Turkish leader even took over the city of Iconium (modern day Konya in Turkey), settled down and declared himself “the Sultan of Rome” and created the Turkish “Sultanate of Rum.” Decades of civil war followed the Eastern Roman Empire, and it was a very chaotic time to be in Anatolia—which was the perfect setup and for a new status quo.

Map of the Byzantine Seljuk Wars, from Wikipedia

 After decades of civil war, Alexios Komnenos ultimately won the civil war through a series of compromises (which is worthy of a negation paper unto itself) and became the sole Emperor of what was left of a diminished Eastern Roman Empire but simply lacked manpower and army strength to rectify the situation in the east.

His general plan was to reconquer the southern coast of Anatolia starting with Nicaea (present day Iznik), and ending with Antioch (present day Antakya) which was the major city and traditional stronghold against the Muslims in Syria. From there he could move against the more entrenched Sultan of Rum and retake the Anatolian hinterland.

The southern route was also the traditional trade and pilgrimage route to Jerusalem and had better infrastructure, was easier to resupply via sea, and was easier to reconquer compared to the flat plains of Anatolia which ironically resembled the vast steppes of Turkestan and favored the traditional fighting style of Turkish Steppe Nomads.

However, in order to accomplish all of this Alexios needed more manpower than the exhausted Eastern Roman empire could provide after decades of civil war and Turkish Invasions.

Aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert and the following Civil War:

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Background Of Emperor Alexios Komnenos

Before we go any further, we need to look at the Position of Emperor Alexios Komnenos, the current Emperor of the Eastern Romans, and the person who knocked the first domino that eventually cascaded into the arrival of the Crusade at the gates of Constantinople.

The first thing to note is that position of Roman Emperor at this time was not an absolute monarchy. Alexios himself was technically a “usurper” that won his throne in the previous Civil War that engulfed the Roman Empire after the disaster at Manzikert.

While his family, the Komnenoi, were in charge of the Imperial Throne and the civil apparatus of the empire, they had to make a lot of compromises with their former opponents, including various factions within and without the empire. Again, this complex process that the Komnenoi created is worthy of several negation articles unto themselves but the most important takeaway is that this was NOT the secure absolute monarchy that previous Emperors of the Roman Empire enjoyed and keeping this position was in no way guaranteed.

Not only that, the cosmopolitan empire’s various factions also had various contacts throughout the known world as well, including the Latins (a catch all for the Italians, French, Germans,English, etc), the Slavs up north (including the powerful Rus of Kiev), and even amongst the Islamic polities as far away as Baghdad, Egypt, Syria and Turkestan. Diplomacy was always used in the empire and Alexios Komnenos was no stranger to it, which is how he became the purple clothed Emperor to begin with.

It is also important to note that the records, we have of this meeting came from a myriad of sources, which were often written decades after the fact, which were written from different perspectives. The main sources that I will use for the facts of the meeting are the following: The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, the daughter of Emperor Alexios, the Writings of Albert of Aachen, who wrote these sometime later based on the accounts from returning veteran crusaders, the Gesta Francorum (author unknown but definitely a Frankish source), and William of Tyre's History (Deeds done Beyond the Seas).

Each of these sources are incredibly biased since most were written from different perspectives (For example: Anna Komnene was Alexios’ daughter, and the Latin Chroniclers favored their own “side”).  These sources often contradict each other due to the fact that they were not only written decades after the events but also written with hindsight in order to justify the falling out that each side had during the latter part of the First Crusade (specifically during the siege of Antioch when both sides claimed that the other side broke their respective agreements during this specific negotiation). I will recreate the most likely story of what happened based on my own interpretation of what happened and my own commentary of it. A complete list will be listed in a separate article so you can come up with your own conclusions.

The next article will dive into the actual negotiations. It is important to know the entire background before analyzing the nature of each one since jumping in will simply cause a lot of confusion. Next time, the first Crusader Army will arrive at Constantinople, the City of the World’s Desire.

Remember when you were back in school and the teach would say “calculators are not allowed in the exam!!”  Well that era has since gone and now almost all schools use calculators

I would compare Chat GPT to a set of carpenter's tools. Just because you give someone a saw, hammer, nails, and other tools doesn't mean they can build a house. It takes a skilled carpenter to do that. Similarly, Chat DBT can enhance a writer's abilities, but it won't replace the skill and talent of a good writer.

Moving forward, I believe Chat GPT will be a helpful tool for writers who want to improve their writing.  Here are some ways it can help out: 

1.     Brainstorming: Chat GPT can provide writers with new ideas and perspectives that they may not have considered before, helping them to come up with fresh content.

2.     Inspiration: Writers can use Chat GPT to generate certain viewpoints, perspectives, and voices.  While it is not a copy and paste situation, it can metaphorically lead to the first domino to fall into a series cascading inspiration streams.

3.     Editing and Revision: Chat GPT can be used to identify and correct grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and other issues that may need to be addressed during the editing and revision process.  This is a MUCH better faster and less confusing tool than the Hemingway app.  However keep in mind that Chat GPT is extremely biased, and rewrote a neutral passage I wrote about the gold standard into a paragraph that is against it. 

4.     Research: Chat GPT can help writers to research topics more much faster than Google, providing them with relevant information and sources to support their writing.  If anything, Google should be scared by this new technology, not human writers. 

5.     Time-saving: By using Chat GPT to automate certain tasks like generating outlines or summaries, writers can save time and focus on other aspects of their work.  Sometimes, you do a lot of research and you need it to be distilled.   This is by far one of the more useful abilities.  However be careful since it is imperfect, and requires careful monitoring.  You cannot simply “spray and pray.”  Again with its biases, it tends to cut out details that does not agree with the mainstream narrative. 

There are some things that Chat GPT can do to help writers out.  Just my opinion, writers in general should at the very least experiment with it.  In the hands of a skilled writer it can save a lot of time and reduce the need for editors. 

It is up to the person to use this technology or not, but it can be fun just trying things out. 

Writers do not need to feel scared using this new technology. 

So go ahead, experiment away.  Just like how a set of carpenter’s tools cannot build a house by itself, the newest technology can help carpenters make better houses more efficiently

Recently, I attended a Trends.co event where agency owners shared their experiences. It was interesting to see how many of them had become freelancers due to different circumstances such as taking advantage of an opportunity, dissatisfaction with their jobs, or being downsized. These freelancers specialized in various fields including programming Saas, design, and marketing.

It got me thinking, the makeup of the word “freelance” are the words “free” and “lance”. Back during medieval times, knights/warriors who did not have a fiefdom had their “lances freed” from any lord.  If they did not make a vow of loyalty to a lord, then they were “free lances.” Similar concepts to this include the Ronin of the Warring States Japan as well as the Condottieri of Renaissance Italy. 

However, if one freelancer became the leader of a team of freelances, there is one thing that will make this one person stand out.  This person is now essentially a mercenary captain that led a team of free lancers, and they could be influential in their own right. 

One person who lived this successfully and eventually became the national Hero of Spain was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known by the name El Cid. 

To understand how El Cid transitioned from a Knight into becoming a freelancer, creating an agency and finally creating his own business (becoming the Count of Valencia), we need to start at the beginning and look at his background:

El Cid worked for King Sancho, who was fighting for the reunification of the kingdom of Leon y Castile. El Cid’s father worked for the previous king (Sancho’s father), but the previous king unwisely split his kingdom up amongst his sons.  El Cid at first worked for Sancho by default since he was the oldest son, and fought many battles against his boss’s siblings, most notably Alfonso, the second son. 

However. Sancho, died from the hands of an assassin and Alfonso became the new king of Castile;  El Cid found himself working for his former boss's enemy. There were rumors that Alfonso had killed Sancho, so El Cid literally dragged his new boss to the Cathedral, asked him to swear on the Bible that he had nothing to do with it. Despite Alfonso swearing that he had nothing to do with it and El Cid swearing fealty to him, their relationship was strained.  Alfonso ended up firing El Cid from his position.  Tensions escalated when Alfonso sent El Cid's replacement to monitor him, which ultimately resulted in conflict and El Cid's exile from the kingdom.

El Cid eventually became a mercenary and took many jobs around the Iberian Peninsula.  Just like a real-life Dungeons and Dragons adventurer, El Cid went around from town to town going to taverns to get leads for quests and jobs, and eventually made a name for himself as a very reliable mercenary captain once he had a group going. He developed fame amongst both Christians and Muslims.

His biggest break happened when he found employment for the Amir of Zaragoza.  He was employed by the Amir of Zaragoza for around a decade, and during this time he used his earnings to develop his own small fiefdom and a personal army of freelancers. 

In 1086, the Almoravids, a dynasty of North African origin, launched an invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and brutally overpowered everything in their path. It got so bad that his old boss King Alfonso asked him to fight against this new force, which El Cid willingly did as a freelancer, taking his agency (mercenary company) with him.  The Almoravids eventually killed the Emir of Valencia (one of their allies) in a battle and seeing this opportunity El Cid quickly took it over in the name of its defense and became the new Count of Valencia.  He was so powerful after becoming the count that he even eventually controlled the modern-day city of Barcelona as well and kept the Almoravids from controlling that region—repeatedly defeating them in battle.

This is the power of freelancing.  While you are not your own king, you can still accumulate power and reputation. Eventually you can be your own boss and seize the opportunity to get some real power.   Just like El Cid, you too can go from being a freelancer to eventually your equivalent of being the Count of Valencia.

El Cid's journey from a fired employee to a legendary freelancer turned agency owner (Mercenary Captain) is an inspiring tale. Contemporary freelancers can draw inspiration from El Cid's dedication, hard work, and his success in becoming his own boss. They should look at El Cid's story as a reminder of the opportunities that hard work can bring even during the most difficult times.  An economic downturn was nowhere near as chaotic as the Reconquista and there is always opportunity in every crisis.

To properly explain my observation, we need to know the basic premise of the game.  In the game, Calamity Ganon comes back and attempts to destroy the kingdom of Hyrule.  However, the destruction is incomplete and the only thing holding him back for the past 100 years is princess Zelda.  However, there is a real devolution in technology, and pretty much everything sucks.  Commerce is at a standstill, and the world is generally a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with monsters, machines that went haywire, and the standard of living is generally not how it used to be.  There was a general feeling that life used to be better in previous generation.

There actually a real-life example of this, and that example is Japan during the so called “Lost Decade” where there was a real crash in the Japanese Economy and standard of living.  We need to remember that like the Hyrule of Old, Japan used to be the second biggest economy that was “feared” throughout the world.  In the 1980s, US pop culture was really worried that “Japan is going to take over the world” since Japanese corporations were buying property everywhere.  Heck Even the movie Die Hard was set in Nakatomi plaza. 

However then the great calamity happened and all the central bank/ government induced boom finally crashed.  No matter what happens the central planners at the Japanese government cannot bring the same level of growth and prosperity that was Japan during the latter 20^th century, and the economy came to a grinding halt.  All thoughts of “Japan is going to take over the world” is gone, and Japan’s population has been shrinking as a side effect of this calamity, just like Hyrule. 

Enter in the central banks of the world.  Just like Princess Zelda, they are trying to stave off a great evil from destroying everything.  However the biggest differenced is that instead of a heroic princess sacrificing herself by fighting a great evil alone, the central banks actually created Calamity Ganon. 

Imagine a storyline where Princess Zelda actually created Calamity Ganon in order to become more powerful—she attempted to harness the power of Calamity Ganon in order to make technology and prosperity progress at a faster rate.  However, because prosperity and growth have a natural flow “evil princess Zelda” lost control and is now trying to hold at bay the monster that she created. 

We have an example of that, and it is the modern monetary system following what is known as MMT, modern monetary theory where central banks actually think they can control the economy to ensure continued prosperity.  However, economics are literally a force of nature, and controlling these cycles is literally like trying to control storm cycles or even gravity itself.  You can try, but the results may vary and what goes up must eventually go down.  These central bankers essentially created Calamity Ganon in order to increase “power” but they instead unleashed a more massive dark dragon that will inevitably come crashing down.  Any attempts to try and contain it will be like a lone princess trying to stem the tide by herself, and the result will be a kingdom full of monsters that the stalemate created.  It was better to not have created this monster in the first place, but since the monster is created, any attempts to hold it at bay will resemble the Hyrule depicted in Breath of the Wild.   

Upon reflection I have come to the conclusion that ESG and the entire ecosystem is a “mechanic” for a religion that needs a a way to “absolve sins.”

Here is why:

In realm of religion there is a group of religions called the Dualist religions.  Famous examples of this include Zoroastrianism, Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Catharism, and Bogomilism. 

While each one is different, there is one thing that binds them, a “good god” and an “evil god” (usually called the Demiurge).  The “good god” is the creator is all spirituality, and the Evil Demiurge is the “evil god” that traps it in evil earthly matter.

With the exception of Zoroastrianism, most of the above existed after Christianity, and is directly at odds with the Christian concept that bodies and spirits are one, and bodies make the unseen (spirit) seen (Shoutout to Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body for a deep dive on this). 

In the case of Gnosticism for example, again there is the spiritual “good god” that created the good spiritual world and all spiritual things, and the evil Demiurge that created the material world and all material things.  The Demiurge then traps good souls into evil material bodies in this evil material world. 

Here is where ESG comes in.  ESG comes up with the premise that human beings and their byproducts are bad.  Humans do things like “destroy the environment, reproduce, kill other organisms for sustenance, have oppressive structures and produce “carbon byproducts.”  In the ESG worldview these things are EVIL and they need to find a way to atone for their sins.

Which is where the scoring system takes place:

Taking a cue from corrupt elements of the Catholic Church in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the ESG industry has set up a scoring system to assess their ESG scores.  Corporations pay money in order to be “absolved from their sins” and “buy these indulgences.”

Note: this is not the teaching of the Catholic Church, corrupt elements simply abused the concept of what an indulgence is, which is a different topic for a different post. 

In addition, companies like Disney even try to enforce these ESG ideas onto their workforce, often by employing a “high priest of ESG” in their ranks.  This way, they try to evangelize the unwashed masses starting within their ranks and with the content that they produce.  Never mind that there are still problems in the world– at least they are taking actions and “are doing something.” 

The ESG system has the trappings of being a mechanic of rather dogmatic religion complete with clergy, a system of sin assessment, and dogma.  It is actually a very clever way to fill in the “God sized hole” that is a part of every single human being.  When the corporate world tells you that they are “irreligious” they are technically incorrect since they have adopted a pretty popular ancient religion that reincarnated and re-manifested itself for the 21^st century.