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Viliam_Bur comments on The Dark Arts: A Beginner's Guide - Less Wrong
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The contradiction appears when in chapter on P-K4 author suggests that not playing P-K4 is a losing strategy, while in chapter on P-Q4 suggests that not playing P-Q4 is a losing strategy. It seemed to me that this is what author did, because all chapters follow the form: "X is a law of power. Here are examples of people who did X and succeeded, and here are examples of people who didn't do X and failed."
Maybe I was reading too much into the text, but it seemed to me that the spirit of the book was "here are 48 laws: if you follow them you succeed, if you ignore them you lose" rather than "there are 48 ways you could react on a situation, and depending on circumstances, any one of them can lead to success or failure."
The end of every chapter has about a page with the heading of "Reversal," in which Greene discusses briefly when the law is counterproductive / does not apply. The chapter entitled "Do Not Commit to Anyone" has, in its reversal, "eventually you may find it worthwhile to commit to one side," with a brief explanation of how occasional commitment increases the value of coyness.
I do agree with you that the reversal section is more of a brief caveat than a full treatment of the weaknesses inherent in every strategy, but it is there (and by pointing out what a thing is not, one makes it clearer).