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"When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard." -Sun Tzu You should allow your opposition to at least believe they h

"When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard." -Sun Tzu You should allow your opposition to at least believe they have an alternative to digging in and fighting you to the bitter end. Even if you have no intention of allowing them to escape or surrender, you should let them believe it's still possible.

mbg721 5y ago
When you surround an anthill, you can just stomp on it, though. Corporate political correctness is built on the perceived certainty of being so far on the winning side of history that any other point of view isn't worth considering.
- dogorman 5y ago
  Progress in the long run may seem inevitable, but certainty of victory can be dangerous in the short to medium term. Whig history ignores the possibility of setbacks. Progressive democracies have fallen to authoritarian dictatorships in the past, and there will likely be more examples in the future. Hubris is not your friend.
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Just a few days ago, there was a submission on HN about an Ancient Greek city where one side was so totally sure about its victory that it committed unspeakable crimes on the losing side - only to get whacked once a foreign military force allied with the losers arrived and the still surviving ones suddenly had a chance of revenge.
- effingwewt 5y ago
  I think I'm confused here. I don't mean to be pedantic, but stomping an anthill wouldn't be 'winning' you would be pressed into your own retreat pretty quickly. I believe the quote holds true, leave an out they will retreat or at least try. Cutoff all egress and it's a fight to the death. Or was that what you were saying and I misunderstood? Or was I just wrong on all accounts?
  - mbg721 5y ago
    Nah, I just had a bad day for metaphors. What I was getting at was that in corporate-conscience situations, the corporation doesn't perceive itself as even being in a battle; if they did, they wouldn't get involved, because it would be bad for business.
stale2002 5y ago
> they have an alternative to digging in and fighting you to the bitter end There was an alternative though. The alternative was for this guy to not make a cringy blog post about his past anti-semitism, and simply not talk about it. The solution to people having horrible ideas in the past, is not for them to make giant, public renouncements. Instead, the solution is for those people to be ashamed enough about their past positions, that they won't even admit that they held them. That is a really good solution for most people, as most people are not going to have every little detail of their past interrogated. It is very much possible for people with these bad ideas, to merely stop having those bad ideas, pretend like they never had them, and join productive society.

mbg721 5y ago

When you surround an anthill, you can just stomp on it, though. Corporate political correctness is built on the perceived certainty of being so far on the winning side of history that any other point of view isn't worth considering.

dogorman 5y ago
Progress in the long run may seem inevitable, but certainty of victory can be dangerous in the short to medium term. Whig history ignores the possibility of setbacks. Progressive democracies have fallen to authoritarian dictatorships in the past, and there will likely be more examples in the future. Hubris is not your friend.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Just a few days ago, there was a submission on HN about an Ancient Greek city where one side was so totally sure about its victory that it committed unspeakable crimes on the losing side - only to get whacked once a foreign military force allied with the losers arrived and the still surviving ones suddenly had a chance of revenge.
effingwewt 5y ago
I think I'm confused here. I don't mean to be pedantic, but stomping an anthill wouldn't be 'winning' you would be pressed into your own retreat pretty quickly. I believe the quote holds true, leave an out they will retreat or at least try. Cutoff all egress and it's a fight to the death. Or was that what you were saying and I misunderstood? Or was I just wrong on all accounts?
- mbg721 5y ago
  Nah, I just had a bad day for metaphors. What I was getting at was that in corporate-conscience situations, the corporation doesn't perceive itself as even being in a battle; if they did, they wouldn't get involved, because it would be bad for business.

stale2002 5y ago

> they have an alternative to digging in and fighting you to the bitter end There was an alternative though. The alternative was for this guy to not make a cringy blog post about his past anti-semitism, and simply not talk about it. The solution to people having horrible ideas in the past, is not for them to make giant, public renouncements. Instead, the solution is for those people to be ashamed enough about their past positions, that they won't even admit that they held them. That is a really good solution for most people, as most people are not going to have every little detail of their past interrogated. It is very much possible for people with these bad ideas, to merely stop having those bad ideas, pretend like they never had them, and join productive society.