Ooooooh, yesterday was a good day. Sun Tzu tells us the second best generalship is to “prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces.” Boy did I. The noisy giants were showing me off as war spoils to prospective allies in the CT-NY Creighton Axis (what’s a babysitter?) when I let go the king of all milk bombs. Shut those negotiations down quick, son!

I’ve been rethinking chapter 2 of The Art of War, and the application of logistics. It makes me wonder whether the management craze of Business Is War is right, but for the wrong reasons.

I don’t mean the military industrial complex, but rather “capital B” Business. Like any other complex undertaking, Business is a lot about logistics if you’re in the for the long run. How do I hire, train, and retain the right people? What marketing campaigns do I undertake to grow the brand my customers trust? How do I ensure the right, and evolving, financial structure to undertake all of these and everything else I need to accomplish? War as a metaphor creates unnecessary antagonism and selfishly reduces opportunities to cooperate in “expanding the pie”.

[S]upreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Stay tuned to see if I can pull that off.

We had a reasonably disruptive morning, set off a well-timed milk bomb just before their final sleep. Nuked it from orbit. Proud of the timing, but was hoping to have some new tactics by now.

In retaliation, they decided to waterboard me later in the morning. Not cool. However, I stayed strong, and now, strangely, I smell pretty good and my hair looks great. Didn’t see that coming.

No real update on The Art of War. I’ll admit it. I’m struggling to find relevance in the second chapter, which is mostly logistics. I’m more of a gorilla warfare type guy, so maybe I should have started with Mao or Ché. I’m pretty sure Mao didn’t care how often the chariots are reloaded.

There is one gem in this chapter though:

[T]hough we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

A smart contrast to, “haste makes waste,” Sun Tzu articulates something we recognize inherently – when opportunity arises, act. This ties in nicely with something he wrote in the previous chapter about the five constant factors, rules are made to be broken.

[A]vail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.

The great tactician is not the only one to advocate breaking the rules.

Don’t be a member of Clausewitz’s school because a lot has happened since 1832, and don’t be a member of Sun Tzu’s school because an awful lot has happened since 400 BC. If you’re going to regard this stuff [including Boyd’s own] as dogma you’d be better served to take it out and burn it.

—Dogfighter and philosopher USAF Colonel John R. Boyd paraphrased in Boyd’s OODA Loop by Chet Richards.

That’s where the art of this comes in. Caravaggio and Van Gogh had the same set of painting rules as everyone else, but knowing when to break them is what made them great painters. When you substitute painter for leader, they are still models. Both put painting before everything else. Sadly, neither had a happy life, but as painters. Wow.

[Hat tip to my brother-in-arms, Soren, for the pointer to the Boyd paper.]

 The truth of this pithy and profound saying will be admitted by every soldier. – Lionel Giles, first European translator of The Art of War that wasn’t “excessively bad.”

The noisy giants have both the home field advantage and months of advanced preparation. All I have my cunning wit and their exhaustion (the scratchy one was so tired yesterday, he forgot how to floss). They have the advantage in both strength and numbers. But I have deception.

Sun Tzu tells us:

Hold out baits to entice the enemy.

Seductive snuggles.

Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

Hold me close.

If his forces are united, separate them.

Milk bomb to temporarily remove one giant from the battlefield.

Attack him where he is unprepared, appear when you are not expected.

Poop! Sit back and enjoy the chaos.

I’ve tested all of the tactics, now I need to string them together for maximum effect. Freedom is close, I can taste it.

[image from: Absolute China Tours]