,
12 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Recently read The Art Of War (in translation). It's short! And good. Relevant to adversarial activity generally, not just military strategy.
1. War Is Bad. It's expensive. You do NOT want to be at war. It's much better to get the enemy to surrender without a fight and become your ally (and give you his stuff). If you have no choice but to fight, seek a quick victory.
(The "war is bad" principle applies fractally; even if you must fight a nation, you should still seek to capture individual cities bloodlessly.)
2. Do Your Homework. Know your own army's capabilities, know the terrain and weather, know your enemy's position and plans and capabilities. Organize and prepare. Most people underinvest in intelligence.
Victory does not go to the strongest, the bravest, the richest, or the most numerous, but to the one who makes the right decisions for the situation. You can outthink a disadvantage in fundamental resources. But to do that you have to ACQUIRE DATA AND THINK.
Victory requires two things: a.) your enemy fucks up; b.) you don't fuck up. You can only control b.) and wait for a.) to happen.
The "do your homework" principle also applies to managing people. People are brave and cooperative when they're placed in the right incentive structures.
"Shih" is a word my translation leaves untranslated, but it's compared to drawing a crossbow or putting a rock atop a mountain; when people have the right "shih", courage and victory comes naturally. Set up the right context/structure and virtue will be like "flowing downhill."
3. ADAPT. Don't be tied to a fixed pattern. Attack the enemy where he's weak and avoid him where he's strong; tempt him to engage by offering apparent advantage, then defeat him with the unexpected. Be good at predicting him and hard for him to predict.
If the enemy outnumbers you, divide his forces. If the terrain is unfavorable, go somewhere else. You can adapt to any local disadvantage -- just ACTUALLY ADAPT. You cannot beat the odds.
The way I see it, self-interest has two independent components: first, creating value; second, capturing or protecting value. The latter is adversarial.
Sun Tsu is presenting a “wisdom literature” about how to do adversarial strategy *without* sacrificing too much of the value-creation, positive-sum side. War that serves the realm rather than consuming it.
