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.]