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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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A little reminder that Sun Tzu "The Art of War" is not some grand masterpiece in strategic thinking. It is a guide aimed at nobelmen that were so far removed from reality, that they needed to be told things like "You can't just order a win in a real competition" or "If you don't give your soldiers food, they become weak and die"
The reason, why his literature created such a cultural ripple, is that telling them these absolute basic things, massively improved there performance on the battlefield. Not because it made them a grand strategic thinker, but because they no longer acted like spoiled toddlers throwing toys around.
Saying someone is a Sun Tzu-level strategic thinker, means they have an absolute basic grasp on reality and nothing really more.
So either 4D Chess is much more simple than regular chess, or this knob doesn't know the things he's referencing.
So what you're saying is that upper management have always been flailng, narcissistic idiots.
Yes especially if the position is hereditary or the person is heavily sponsored by there rich parents
Funnily enough we managed to make companies so much worse that the family owned medium sized (think a few hundred employees) companies run by the younger generation of the family often look better than the average company run by a CEO hired specifically for that role from a large pool of potential candidates. Most likely because they actually have some long-term thinking left.
The most absolutely insightful thing in the art of war is that cornered soldiers are going to fight to the death and give it their all, so 1) leave your opponents an exit and 2) get your own soldiers cornered on purpose
Did Sun Tzu even write the thing about "never interrupt your enemy when he's ~~destroying himself~~ making a mistake"? Because that is pretty cool. Which of course does not reflect at all on this Xhitter idiot.
Nah that's generally attributed to Napoleon "Never interupt your enemy while he is in the process of making a mistake".
My copy of the book has this translation: "To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself." which is not exactly the same, but in a similar spirit.
That's not really what the book says. It does go into strategy (though today it's rather inspiration than something to be followed to the letter).
Plus, while you make it seem trivial, logistics are really hard and must not be overlooked. It's like saying "Germany lost the Battle of Stalingrad because they didn't know that if you [edit: don't] give your soldiers food, they become weak and die!" like, they probably knew this, but their strategy lead to a situation where this happened.
Yes, it literally is.
Chapter 9.29 and 30
When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears, they are faint from want of food
If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst
Chapter 2.9
Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough for its needs
The entire Art of War can be printed on 4 pages of A4 paper if you remove all the fancy layout that usually goes into the book to pad it to something over 50.
This refers to the enemy army, not their own – at least from my reading, these paragraphs are about observing signs about enemy plans and capabilities.
I mean, OK? My point was that the book is a strategic guide and not just obvious stuff noblemen don't know. But there is also plenty of other stuff in there, and as I said earlier, logistics are probably the most important aspect of modern conflict.
Looks like I was a little too hyperbolic in my summary. Doesn't help, if two non-native speakers try to communicate in such a way. :D
Yes you are right. There is a good reason, why the booklet is widely known. No, I don't think logistics is easy.
I'm just having a chuckle about the use of "Sun Tzu level" in the post, where it is used as a metaphor for being smarter than everyone else. While the book referenced is a dated beginner-level introduction to the subject of military strategy.
Something tells me that is not what you meant to write here.
Depends who's cooking, could just be a great insult
True