How Power Works
After 8 sessions, your kid can name what's actually going on when a teacher, coach, or politician tries to influence them — and decide what to do about it.
3 free sessions, no credit card.
What your kid will be able to do
After 8 sessions, here's what changes.
- 1
Tell the difference between someone who has authority and someone who has actual power, and explain what makes the difference.
- 2
Recognize Machiavelli's fear-vs-love trade-off when it shows up in a coach, a friend group, or a boss.
- 3
Identify the gap between stated rules and how rules actually get applied — at school, in sports, online.
- 4
Detect flattery vs. honest feedback in their own life and name three tests for telling them apart.
- 5
Apply the lion-and-the-fox framework to a real conflict they're navigating right now.
Meet your teacher
Marcus
Calm, intellectually serious, slightly provocative. Treats your kid like an adult.
Marcus teaches like the favorite professor you wish you'd had — patient, never preachy, willing to challenge a weak answer instead of clapping for it. He won't tell your kid what to think; he'll make them defend what they believe. Every line he speaks is either written by us or generated inside tight constraints we wrote — there's no free-form chat.
What Marcuswill and won't do
Will:read real source passages, ask Socratic follow-ups, push back on weak answers, adapt language to your kid's age, end every session with a 5-question comprehension test.
Won't: free-form chat off the curriculum, give your kid the answers, clap for shallow effort, recommend specific products or stocks, or operate outside the lesson script.
The source material
Real books, named — not generative summaries.
The Prince — Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)
The most clear-eyed book ever written about how power actually operates. We read short passages from the original, then ask your kid what they make of it.
Honest note: Machiavelli is often reduced to a villain. He wasn't. He was a public servant trying to describe reality. We frame him as a clinical observer, not an inspiration.
The 48 Laws of Power — Robert Greene (2000)
Modern, sharp, and unflinching. We use selected passages — never the whole book — to give your kid the vocabulary for things they already see happening around them.
Honest note: Some laws describe manipulative tactics. Marcus frames them as things to recognize when others use them, not as a manual.
Try the real thing, free.
We don't do demo videos. Create an account in 30 seconds — no credit card — and your kid does 3 full sessions with Marcus. If they want more, you pick a plan. Otherwise, no charge, ever.
The 8 sessions
Each session is 25 minutes and builds on the last.
1Why Power Exists
Your kid will leave Session 1 questioning the gap between how power is supposed to work and how it actually works.
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Why Power Exists
Your kid will leave Session 1 questioning the gap between how power is supposed to work and how it actually works.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“Think about the most powerful person in your school — not the most popular, the most powerful. What actually makes them powerful?”
2Fortune vs. Skill
Your kid can tell the difference between bad luck and bad preparation, and name one specific thing they want to prepare for.
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Fortune vs. Skill
Your kid can tell the difference between bad luck and bad preparation, and name one specific thing they want to prepare for.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“When something goes wrong in your life — how much of it is bad luck and how much is something you could have controlled?”
3How Leaders Win and Lose Trust
Your kid can explain why obedience breaks under pressure and loyalty doesn't, and apply it to a team or friend group.
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How Leaders Win and Lose Trust
Your kid can explain why obedience breaks under pressure and loyalty doesn't, and apply it to a team or friend group.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“What is the difference between someone obeying you because they have to and someone following you because they want to?”
4Fear vs. Love
Your kid can articulate Machiavelli's fear-vs-love argument and the line between feared and hated.
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Fear vs. Love
Your kid can articulate Machiavelli's fear-vs-love argument and the line between feared and hated.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“If you had to choose — would you rather people around you feared disappointing you, or genuinely loved being around you?”
5When Rules Apply to You and Not to Others
Your kid notices where rules in their own life are applied unevenly — and has a framework for what to do with that.
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When Rules Apply to You and Not to Others
Your kid notices where rules in their own life are applied unevenly — and has a framework for what to do with that.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“Have you ever noticed that powerful institutions have rules for everyone else that they don't follow themselves? Is that corruption or just reality?”
6Reading the People Around You
Your kid can run a personal test for whether feedback they're getting is honest or flattery.
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Reading the People Around You
Your kid can run a personal test for whether feedback they're getting is honest or flattery.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“How do you know if someone is giving you honest advice versus telling you what they think you want to hear?”
7The Lion and the Fox
Your kid can name when to be the lion (direct, forceful) and when to be the fox (patient, observant) in a real conflict.
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The Lion and the Fox
Your kid can name when to be the lion (direct, forceful) and when to be the fox (patient, observant) in a real conflict.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“When is it better to be the fox — patient, quiet, observing? When is it necessary to be the lion?”
8Apply It
Your kid synthesizes all 7 concepts and applies them to three real scenarios in their life.
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Apply It
Your kid synthesizes all 7 concepts and applies them to three real scenarios in their life.
Sample question Marcus will ask
“We've spent seven sessions studying how power actually works. Today, you prove you understand it. Ready?”
What you, the parent, see
After every session — and a written assessment when the course ends.
After every session
- • Full conversation transcript
- • Comprehension score (out of 5)
- • One-line note on their strongest moment
- • One-line note on what to revisit
When the course ends
- • Written assessment of how your kid did
- • Their proudest moment, in their own words
- • Dinner-table questions to extend the conversation
- • A “What you now know” sheet for your kid
Questions about this course
Is Machiavelli too dark for my kid?+
Machiavelli isn't dark — he's clinical. We treat his ideas the way a biology class treats predators: things that exist in the world that your kid is better off understanding than not. Marcus never advocates for manipulation; he describes how it works so your kid can spot it.
Will this turn my kid into a manipulator?+
No, and we built the course specifically to avoid that. Every session ends with the question of where these ideas become dangerous. The kid who finishes this course is harder to manipulate — that's the goal.
What ages does this actually work for?+
Best fit is 12 and up. The AI teacher adapts language for younger kids if you set the age lower, but the source material is more honestly absorbed by a kid who's started to notice social dynamics.
What if my kid has already read these books?+
Great — they'll get more out of the Socratic dialogue. Marcus pushes harder on kids who come in with prior reading. The lessons aren't summaries; they're conversations about specific passages.
One subscription. Both courses. Every future course.
Starting at $49/month for one child after your free sessions. Cancel in one click.
3 free sessions, no credit card.