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A review by knod78
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
4.0
Not sure I ever thought I would read The Art of War, but it's 2020 and here we are on the eve before America's big election and possible impending apocalypse, mini civil war, TP shortage, different strands of murder hornets, whatever.
I first heard about this book a couple of years ago by a boss boss boss who quoted this in our big introduction meeting to the new big guy. Yes, this could be considered strange, but I was intrigued. I put it on my list and then finally read it for free on Amazon. I'm not sure I got the same one as the picture shows. Mine was less than 100 pages with a numbered outline of war strategies. I still think I got the gist of this book.
I do like that Sun Tzu doesn't promote actually battling. In fact, he quotes that we should not try to battle, but here are the ways to win and win successfully if you can't diffuse the situation. Some of it was hard to follow. You would have one way and then don't do that and basically it's a timing issue to get things just right. But if you are power hungry or vain or just flat out stupid, you will lose and lose your men badly. I liked that some key terms in life we use based on this whether you knew that or not, like covering serious ground. My favorite chapter was about the different types of terrains/grounds terms he uses. And I didn't think I would hear an ancient Chinese general use the words willy-nilly, but again, here we are. Thus the skillful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.
It's good to read and short. If you find yourself in the throws of an apocalypse, it might be a good idea to raid a library for this book to help with battle strategy if you are not familiar with the ways.
I first heard about this book a couple of years ago by a boss boss boss who quoted this in our big introduction meeting to the new big guy. Yes, this could be considered strange, but I was intrigued. I put it on my list and then finally read it for free on Amazon. I'm not sure I got the same one as the picture shows. Mine was less than 100 pages with a numbered outline of war strategies. I still think I got the gist of this book.
I do like that Sun Tzu doesn't promote actually battling. In fact, he quotes that we should not try to battle, but here are the ways to win and win successfully if you can't diffuse the situation. Some of it was hard to follow. You would have one way and then don't do that and basically it's a timing issue to get things just right. But if you are power hungry or vain or just flat out stupid, you will lose and lose your men badly. I liked that some key terms in life we use based on this whether you knew that or not, like covering serious ground. My favorite chapter was about the different types of terrains/grounds terms he uses. And I didn't think I would hear an ancient Chinese general use the words willy-nilly, but again, here we are. Thus the skillful general conducts his army just as though he were leading a single man, willy-nilly, by the hand.
It's good to read and short. If you find yourself in the throws of an apocalypse, it might be a good idea to raid a library for this book to help with battle strategy if you are not familiar with the ways.