Sun Tzu's art of War

From Jason Seiden's blog ...

"Over the next two weeks, I will be posting a series of blog entries on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Today, I start at the beginning: chapter one. (Makes sense.)

If you are not familiar with the book, I highly recommend it. It’s a fast read, and most versions have commentary at the beginning that provide a fascinating historical context for the work. There is also a terrific website, sonshi.com, that has a copy of the book, interviews (including one with me), and a forum dedicated to The Art of War. I highly recommend perusing that site.

So here are the key questions that jump out at me from chapter one: first, why study war? And second, what’s the framework for understanding how to win?

The first question is easy: because if you ever find yourself in a war, you had better know how to win. Not engage, not skirmish, but win. Only by being able to win a war can you hope to avoid one.

The second question is deceptively complex. Sun Tzu lays out a five point model for thinking about the elements of warfare. Master these five elements, and you’ve got it made in the shade. They are: the “way”, heaven, ground, command, and law/doctrine that sounds simple only until you start to apply it.

Way is culture or influence. It is the ability of leaders to unite subordinates under a common theme and create a heightened level of commitment to the common cause. Sun Tzu puts this as the first amongst equals."

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