I disagree with the author's interpretation of some of these points. The author inteprets "... when able to attack, we must seem unable..." as meaning you shou

I disagree with the author's interpretation of some of these points. The author inteprets "... when able to attack, we must seem unable..." as meaning you should lay low. On the contrary, this is talking about the element of surprise and sending a signal that what's going on is the opposite of what's really going on. Are you about to launch? Say you're still hunkering down working on product. Do you have a ton of money available? Make it seem like you're operating on a shoestring. Are you operating on a shoestring? Then make it seem like you have plenty of funds. My understanding of various "Art of War" and military strategy type things I've seen is that the element of surprise is the single most important tool for leveraging a weak position into a strong one. And the second quote, about "It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying on" is I think referring to people who have been through the horrors of war and hence know enough to be cautious and not rush into it, as opposed to younger/newer soldiers who can't wait to get into a battle and show how awesome they are. If this has any analogy to the startup world I'd think it would be more like "only those who've experienced the downsides of taking on VC funding will know whether they should take funding again next time vs. bootstrapping".