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.
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(The "war is bad" principle applies fractally; even if you must fight a nation, you should still seek to capture individual cities bloodlessly.)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The "do your homework" principle also applies to managing people. People are brave and cooperative when they're placed in the right incentive structures.
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"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."
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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.
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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.
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The way I see it, self-interest has two independent components: first, creating value; second, capturing or protecting value. The latter is adversarial.
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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.
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