The Psychology of History's 'Greatest' Leaders

What sort of people wind up becoming presidents or dictators? According to one expert, there are Seven Pillars of Political Leadership possessed by men like Mao, Lenin, Roosevelt, and Ataturk. What do they all have in common?

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[lw]

I think the 'Great Leader' whose psychology I find most interesting is napoleon. He had an apparently hypnotic personal presence, and he had a really astounding amount of self control; he described his mind as like a chest of drawers; he could open any of the draws and look inside at will, as he had a photographic memory. He could also close the drawers at will and go to sleep instantly, for as long as he liked. Truly remarkable man.

[budgetlifter]

everything aside J.J is very good at explaining things and i honestly feels like this channel is still massively underrated

[nararabbit]

we had a head of Apple engineering come speak at our community college. He told us that one of the best employment decisions at Apple was to have two tracks. You don’t have to keep rising from engineering into management because not everyone wants to or has the skill to manage people. They have a second track that allows you to stay in engineering and keep developing those skills and making more money, which keeps most people who shouldn’t be in management from ending up there. He also said as your job title increases you get less protection, not more, and they’ll eliminate anyone who isn’t performing instead of having a bunch of folks resting on their laurels thinking they “made it”. Interesting guy.

[supersejkaj]

Guess who's back
Back again
JJs back
Tell a friend

[Blabla]

"I read 2000 biographies of world leaders to gain a deep psychological understanding of their desire for power!"
"we now have twitter"
"<cries>"

[gushardy]

4:49 It wouldn't be a JJ video without a chance to dump on Kim Campbell

[kiplingwasafurry]

In regards to non political leaders I can definitely see some of these fitting with Walt Disney
- He basically made himself the main face of his company by overshadowing his brother Roy, also becoming a more strict head of Disney after the 1941 strike.
- Especially when he was younger, Walt wanted to rebel against his father who he described as cold and never saw his career in animation as real.
- Walt absolutely had charisma and portrayed himself as a nice family friendly man on TV and in interviews, even when he was in the office he had a commanding force to him.
- He took a lot of risks in his life with starting several businesses in the animation field which was very niche at the time, this would later be displayed when Snow White began production as he mortgaged his own house to finance the film.
- Walt saw himself as the face of his company (even changing the name of it from Disney Bros. Studios to Walt Disney studios) and as a sort of father figure to the young animators.
- For the vanity factor he did put a lot of stuff on the line especially when the company began to produce Snow White, this trait would later appear when Walt was involved in the HUAC because unlike most of Hollywood he was a strong anti - communist.
- Walt definitely had some mental problems and even experienced a breakdown due to overworking in 1931, he had an insane drive to work - sometimes at the cost of his own family as he would come home late at night - and worked up until about 2 weeks before his death from lung cancer.
Basically I find Walt interesting because while his name is plastered everywhere these days a lot of people still don't know his story and who exactly the man was. I like to dig deeper into his life and I didn't expect for him to fit well into these pillars.
And if I get any comments on this: no, Walt Disney was not anti Semitic.

[patrickrabulan]

Honestly the way you’re able to explain and synthesize information across different fields makes you a very good educator! I teach both world history and psychology as separate classes, but I frequently find myself seeing connections like this, especially from the clinical side. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[elakbani]

J.J., I really enjoy when you go over books you've read because you find a way to condense the information in a way that is both entertaining and informative. Keep it up!

[dawsonlanham]

Glad to have a JJ video on my birthday!

[matthewroach]

Personally, I feel like we’re in a bit of a transition period. We’ve been living in an era characterized by the popularity of restraints on power for a long enough period of time that we’re seeing a rise in the popularity of calls to more sweeping power when we share the values of those in charge. So it’s very possible that we could see a rise of these types of individuals one more time, but I’m inclined to believe it’s still a more primal human nature to revert to this style of leadership, and that we’re slowly evolving away from this.

[thehounddogger]

Ya know it’s gonna be good when JJ puts “Greatest” in quotations

[princessscotchtape]

The "Hemoclysm" talk reminded me of the conclusion in Hayek's Road to Serfdom, "Though we neither can wish nor possess the power to go back to the reality of the nineteenth century, we have the opportunity to realize its ideals -- they were not mean. We have little right to feel in this respect superior to our grandfathers; and we should never forget that it is we, the twentieth century, and not they, who have made a mess of things. If they had not yet fully learned what was necessary to create the world they wanted, the experience we have since gained ought to have equipped us better for the task. If in the first attempt to create a world of free men we have failed, we must try again."

[eccentriastes]

This fits with a broader notion I have that the people who are most successful in any given field are usually kind of fucked up because their personality is optimized for success in that field above all else, even at the expense of things like happiness or moral virtue.

[wpprodpyc]

Fun fact: Mao's little brother was named L Mao!

[vfsdm]

Getúlio Vargas is without a doubt Brazil’s greatest leader

Not only does he check all personality pillars, but he also does the hardest one: agent of change imo

* He ended the colonial order Brazil was in since 1500s ( BR economy was based in agriculture ) and shifted to industrialization
* He inaugurated populism in our politics, which is still very much present and relevant political force to this day
* He created the sense of Brazilian nationalism or a cohesive Brazilian Identity ( regionalism was the only type of identity found in the country before the 1930s) and our international image of Samba, Carnaval, Carmen Miranda, Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana Palace, Ipanema streets... regarding if it was a real depiction of the whole nation

[jeremyepstein]

JJ can literally talk about bananas for an hour and I’d listen cuz he makes everything interesting

[jakedesnake]

Something I was thinking about the other day is that even the most mediocre and unforgettable world leader is, in some sense, extraordinary. After all, in most forms of government aside from monarchy, no one was predisposed to power: the leader, whoever he or she might have been, nevertheless managed to win enough support from the right people to become the head of state. Kim Campbell might have been a terrible Prime Minister, she still managed to get herself elected as member of parliament and earned the trust of enough of the PC party to become attorney general and then Mulroney's replacement, all during a period where women in politics was still as fairly novel concept. That takes courage, moxie, and ambition to achieve.

[jedediahwright]

I feel like JJ talking about some of his favorite books and their points would make an interesting video

[tobyfarman]

I've noticed a mistake in the video - 12:56 he says Mao Zedong died 1967, it was actually 1976