4 ms·

Sure, it isn't exactly the same situation as a war, where one country is fighting his neighbor country to the death. But to say that the art of war has no lesso

Sure, it isn't exactly the same situation as a war, where one country is fighting his neighbor country to the death. But to say that the art of war has no lessons to teach those of us who are not literally in a war is ignorant.

Jach 7y ago
Perhaps I am ignorant. I've only gone through one translation of The Art of War, perhaps others are better, but for all such texts there are always motivated translators purposefully not capturing what was originally written in order to make it seem more broadly applicable. This discussion has reminded me that your oft-quoted "quote" doesn't seem to originate from any actual translation, but is a rephrasing of a bit of chapter 1, where it says "Therefore, when able, seem to be unable;" followed by a lot of other things. It's also worth pointing out what immediately precedes the 'therefore', which is: "Warfare is the art of deceit." That simple line left out of the version you quoted is crucial. Context matters, and applies for quotes even when the original is in English (see the full context of Knuth's premature optimization quote for instance). The context here is about deception in war. At best you could extrapolate it to situations where deception against your foes is needed in general, but even that is stretching things, and certainly doesn't apply all that much to publicly traded companies like Tesla. The closest analog for them is guarding trade secrets. Besides, deception is usually frowned upon outside of armed conflict, and if a public company deceives the wrong people about the wrong things, and gets called on it, then the company and its higher ups aren't going to have a good time. For example, cooking the books to 'appear strong' would be a rather egregious deception. Some forms of deception can have a more legitimate purpose in certain business dealings, it's true, as I'm now reminded of Gates' love of poker and some of his great bluffs in MS's early days. Though the consequences of failure wouldn't have been beheading. I'll quote the rest of the paragraph from my translation though and let you decide if Sun Tzu has anything to say about this narrow form at the poker table or when trying to arrange multi-party business dealings promising future deliveries: "when nearby, seem far away; and when far away, seem near. If the enemy seeks some advantage, entice him with it. If he is in disorder, attack him and take him. If he is formidable, prepare against him. If he is strong, evade him. If he is incensed, provoke him. If he is humble, encourage his arrogance. If he is rested, wear him down. If he is internally harmonious, sow divisiveness in his ranks. Attack where he is not prepared; go by way of places where it would never occur to him you would go. These are the military strategist's calculations for victory--they cannot be settled in advance."

Jach 7y ago

Perhaps I am ignorant. I've only gone through one translation of The Art of War, perhaps others are better, but for all such texts there are always motivated translators purposefully not capturing what was originally written in order to make it seem more broadly applicable. This discussion has reminded me that your oft-quoted "quote" doesn't seem to originate from any actual translation, but is a rephrasing of a bit of chapter 1, where it says "Therefore, when able, seem to be unable;" followed by a lot of other things. It's also worth pointing out what immediately precedes the 'therefore', which is: "Warfare is the art of deceit." That simple line left out of the version you quoted is crucial. Context matters, and applies for quotes even when the original is in English (see the full context of Knuth's premature optimization quote for instance). The context here is about deception in war. At best you could extrapolate it to situations where deception against your foes is needed in general, but even that is stretching things, and certainly doesn't apply all that much to publicly traded companies like Tesla. The closest analog for them is guarding trade secrets. Besides, deception is usually frowned upon outside of armed conflict, and if a public company deceives the wrong people about the wrong things, and gets called on it, then the company and its higher ups aren't going to have a good time. For example, cooking the books to 'appear strong' would be a rather egregious deception. Some forms of deception can have a more legitimate purpose in certain business dealings, it's true, as I'm now reminded of Gates' love of poker and some of his great bluffs in MS's early days. Though the consequences of failure wouldn't have been beheading. I'll quote the rest of the paragraph from my translation though and let you decide if Sun Tzu has anything to say about this narrow form at the poker table or when trying to arrange multi-party business dealings promising future deliveries: "when nearby, seem far away; and when far away, seem near. If the enemy seeks some advantage, entice him with it. If he is in disorder, attack him and take him. If he is formidable, prepare against him. If he is strong, evade him. If he is incensed, provoke him. If he is humble, encourage his arrogance. If he is rested, wear him down. If he is internally harmonious, sow divisiveness in his ranks. Attack where he is not prepared; go by way of places where it would never occur to him you would go. These are the military strategist's calculations for victory--they cannot be settled in advance."