Definition
Social strategy is the deliberate, planned pursuit of goals that depend on other people — anticipating reactions, sequencing moves, and adapting as a situation develops. It treats human interaction less as spontaneous and more as a field where outcomes can be shaped by foresight.
Robert Greene's books are, in effect, social-strategy manuals: catalogs of patterns drawn from history and biography, organized so a reader can plan rather than improvise.
Why it matters
How it works
A social strategist sets a goal, models the other party's likely responses, and chooses moves that lead step by step toward the goal while leaving room to adapt. The skill is partly patience — not rushing a move whose moment has not come — and partly attention, reading feedback to know which phase an interaction occupies.
The same lens used to plan can be used to detect. When you notice an interaction unfolding in suspiciously textbook stages, you are reading someone else's strategy — which is the first step in declining to follow it.