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When you cross a swamp, try to do it fast
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this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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chapotraphouse
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I have read Sun Tzu and my takeaway is that he wanted to wipe away overconfidence, or the idea that conflict is decided simply by who wants to win more. It's a repeated message of "no, conflict is a risk you're taking and you have to think about it." The entire book is him constantly saying that fighting a war is difficult, you need to take literally every advantage you can get, and you should only fight if you have to or if you vastly outnumber your opponent. Also, run away when you have to and do boring logistics stuff like make sure the horses have water and everyone's getting paid. That's my impression for why business guys like it so much, because their gut instinct is that they're the hottest shit on Earth and don't need to think about how to do anything. They look at Sun Tzu's advice, which is often just "think about doing things before you do it, because you could fail and that would suck" and to them it's a massive revelation because they've never once considered a negative outcome was possible.
I can't really speak to the cult of business self help, I just find the Art of War a useful manual.
Once I joined a march in the middle of July. Somewhere between 80-100 degrees, in the sun, miles of marching. I had a big water bladder and snacks and first aid and shit, because I read Sun Tzu and Sun Tzu says you need to pay attention to water. All the libs I was marching with? Totally unprepared for a long march in the July sun. A couple of miles in we had to stop at a gas station and absolutely clean it out of water, like we were all emptying our wallets to buy as much water as they had for people. At that point a call was made to turn around before people started collapsing. Shameful, total logistical failure. Adequate water is the most basic thing, and the libs didn't even consider it.
Next march I went to, I brought a wagon with like 20 gallons of water, plus a big bag of WHO oral rehydration mixture for people to add to their water if they wanted. Folks emptied me out before we'd gone two miles.
Sun Tzu is important!
Okay I'm convinced, do you have a preferred translation?
The version I have on my shelf is "The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China" translated by Ralph D. Sawyer, but I can't tell you if it's an especially good translation.
So why do you figure do so many businesses suck at logistics or the nearest company equivalent if you're not actually in the business of physical things, like process management?
Because they all think they're a super special exemption to the rule and it doesn't apply to them because of how smart and cool they are.