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Masters of Influence

Masters of Influence

Written by: Jeff Loehr
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 Most of the economic/political/social conversation focuses on personalities: do I like them, where do they come from, are they "left" or "right." Instead of name-calling and pigeonholing, we want to understand why some strategies work and others don't. How do some people consolidate power while others are left out in the cold? And what does that mean for us? If you are interested in the world's power plays and how they work - join us.

mastersofinfluence.substack.comJeffrey Loehr Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • So, executions are legal now?

    So, executions are legal now?
    Jan 25 2026

    My ambition is to empower people to become more critical thinkers and recognize the importance of power, how it’s being used, where it’s being used and how to both defend against it as well as claim some for themselves. Ourselves really, especially in this time of feeling powerless, how do we claim some power.

    It is not to only talk about politics. I’m interested in how we apply these rules to politics and the political situation, and how we can use these rules to better master our world.

    However, I saw that video yesterday and could think of nothing else. An execution by the government in the US and the regime is actively justifying it.

    Yesterday’s shooting makes Good’s shooting seem less almost, well, mundane. At least she wasn’t shot in the back.

    This week was supposed to be the follow up on the context episode from last week, but we decided it was important to join the voices condemning the shooting and calling for some action.

    So, here are our thoughts on the Minneapolis situation. From wondering what the hell is going on to asking ourselves whether this is a state of war, we discuss what Alex Pretti’s murder means and where we go from here.

    Join the conversation in the chat and we’ll be back next week with arguments and logic. I hope. Until then, Jeff



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    31 mins
  • Forget the guns, it's a fight for context

    Forget the guns, it's a fight for context
    Jan 13 2026

    We’re watching something disturbing unfold in Minneapolis, and it’s not what you think.

    The threat isn’t the guns.

    A woman is dead, killed at point-blank range by the cowards at ICE, and that’s not the worst of it. As bad as murder is, it’s a distraction.

    What everyone gets wrong is that they engage with the content, debate it, and get sucked into a world where they define the terms and create the context. It isn’t a war about what happened, that’s clear. It’s a war of context.

    Key Takeaways:

    * The Kuleshov Effect from 1920 and its relevance today.

    * How the government uses context to minimize killing civilians.

    * Similarities to Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing show where this can go.

    * When information gets narrower, context manipulation gets stronger

    Here’s your defense: Get suspicious when the frame gets narrow. One camera angle instead of five. One quote instead of the full conversation. One data point instead of the trend.

    Narrowness is the tell.

    And push back, because whoever controls the context controls not just how evidence gets interpreted, but what counts as evidence in the first place. You don’t need to lie when you can decide what people see first, last, and most often.

    Robert Greene never quite named this in his 48 Laws of Power, but we may need a new one: Define the frame before entering the arena.

    The only question that matters:

    What context are they trying to hide?



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    21 mins
  • When We Went Looking for the Quantum Threat and Found the Meaning of Life Instead

    When We Went Looking for the Quantum Threat and Found the Meaning of Life Instead
    Dec 20 2025
    We invited Dr. Keeper Sharkey and Reesë Tuttle onto Masters of Influence expecting a conversation about digital apocalypse. What we got instead was a meditation on consciousness, creativity, and what makes us human.The SetupI’d been marinating in the breathless quantum computing headlines touting quantum supremacy, the end of encryption, and the unmatched capacity of these machines. The narrative seemed clear—these machines would crack every password, break every security system, and shift the balance of power toward whoever controlled them.Dr. Keeper Sharkey seemed perfect to walk us through this doomsday. She’s vice chair of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium’s Use Cases Technical Advisory Committee, she is the founder and Director of ODE L3C a quantum on quantum awareness and education organization (https://odestar.com/), she chairs the IEEE’s P1947 standards for a quantum cybersecurity framework working group.Joining her was Reesë Tuttle, secretary of the IEEE P1947 standards for a quantum cybersecurity framework working group, a cybersecurity researcher tracking where quantum computing intersects with security threats, and her company AP2T Labs focuses on cyber security and cyber security training.I came prepared with questions about encryption vulnerabilities and surveillance. Then Dr. Sharkey said something that completely reframed everything.The Unexpected TurnAbout fifteen minutes in, Keeper dropped this: “A quantum computer is basically just a camera. You’re taking a picture of a quantum system—making a measurement of which state that system is in.”Then we took a turn into chemistry and biology. And I realized two things:1. The smaller things get the bigger and more interesting they become. The smallest particles in the universe have some of the most outrageous qualities.2. Humans are stuck in an attempt to recreate human thinking, but the brain does things that an algorithm can’t do and likely never will.What I expected to be a conversation about the diminishing power of humans, became a discussion about the uniqueness of the human brain and life itself.What We Actually LearnedQuantum computers aren’t coming for your passwords anytime soon. We’re looking at 2050 before quantum computers might crack modern encryption at scale. The engineering challenges are massive, costs astronomical. “The threat is theoretical,” Keeper explained, “but technically there isn’t a threat right now because of scaling issues.”Quantum computers are incredibly fragile. They operate near absolute zero, require perfect isolation, and researchers run experiments late at night because footsteps can disrupt measurements.The real revolution is on making things more secure. Quantum technology is already being used for security—protecting information systems before data gets stolen.But Here’s Where It Got Really InterestingSomewhere in the middle of discussing qubits, we started talking about consciousness and what it actually means to be alive.Which led to the revelation that your brain is a quantum computer, the rest is a poor copy.The brain processes multiple probabilities simultaneously. It collapses possibilities into outcomes. It operates through quantum information science in your DNA, your neurons, the chemistry that makes you conscious.And we’re trying to build quantum computers to do what brains already do naturally.“I don’t think nature does mathematics,” Keeper said. “I don’t think AI or quantum systems will ever be able to perform mathematical thinking—the creative kind that solves novel problems.”Reesë nailed it: “There’s no life to it. It’s literally doing equations,” humans have the capacity for creativity and novel thought.“The complexity behind an algorithm that would solve deep mathematical problems would be far too complicated,” Keeper explained. “A human wouldn’t be able to create that algorithm.”The most advanced quantum computer we can imagine still can’t match the creative capacity of a human mind. Not because it lacks processing power, but because it lacks life.The Question We Should Be AskingWe keep asking: “When will quantum computers take over?”The better question: “What are quantum computers teaching us about consciousness and what makes us human?”Quantum computers aren’t threatening to replace human thinking. They’re showing us just how extraordinary human thinking actually is.The power implicationsThis conversation reframed my understanding—not just of quantum computing, but of consciousness and creativity.It feels like we may be losing control to algorithms, that they are gaining power over knowledge, but the truth is they still can’t achieve the complexity of the human brain and may never get there.Humans still hold the ultimate power: creativity. And whatever breathless headlines appear, remember that you are the most sophisticated quantum computer in existence.What are your thoughts? Did ...
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    51 mins
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