23/09/2019
Originally written for my prototype website back in 09/2019 and finished in 14/06/2021
The Art of War is a military treatise written by an almost mythical figure, Sun Tzu, from ancient China in the Spring and Autumn period (around 700-450 BCE) of ancient China. While there has been a historical dispute about the actual existence and historicity of the author, these ideas are still highly influential resonate within the modern world. This makes it more than 2000 years old! It is a short and easy read that I highly recommend to everyone. It took me 30 minutes to finish reading everything.
While the book itself mainly discusses the strategies and concepts to apply in times of war, these same strategies could easily be used anywhere, such as work or life in general. This is the nature of Sun Tzu’s advice in the military treatise - Straightforward and Elegant. In these notes, I will cover 5 pearls to ponder on.
The book’s opening statement establishes the importance of understanding and excelling in military affairs for the State to survive. When we are doing work or anything in general, we must identify ideas, elements, and concepts that propel our profession to excellence. Similarly, in our lives, I believe there is a need to understand what lifestyle and ideas we need to subscribe to excel in our profession. I.e., A good scientist believes in rationalistic thinking and the scientific method and would carry out his life closely with those ideals. This can be applied to our mind too; if we want to be happy, we should aim to understand what causes and bring us happiness.
Deception is another theme prevalent in the book where deceiving your enemy and controlling their beliefs would easily gain you an edge on the battlefield. If we were to apply this to real-world scenarios, Sun Tzu effectively tells us to use deception to reach our goals. Personally, I do not condone the practice of deceiving others in a professional environment. However, it is critical to identify such deception as we will encounter them frequently throughout our lives. I.e., Am I being short-changed in this bargain? Etc.
This self-explanatory and shares similar sentiments to “work smarter, not harder.” According to Sun Tzu, excellence and mastery are achieved through optimal and yet minimal effort to achieve the set target outcomes. Of course, this does mean that being hardworking is a negative trait; rather, we should be more wary and intelligent when setting out to achieve our desired goals and outcomes.
“Energy is the ability to do work” - this is the physics definition of energy. It is similar to Sun Tzu’s idea about energy, although he relates more to moving armies around. Essentially, It states that there are infinitely many ways to conduct offensive or defensive maneuvers with the army and gain an advantage. However, we must be wary of other factors such as terrain that could affect the energy while considering these maneuvers. For example, we often find ourselves literally dictated by the amount of energy we have left, such as tackling a tight project deadline. If we have little energy left in our gas tank, this is often an unpleasant experience. On the contrary, if we have a lot of energy, it might turn into a challenging and exciting experience instead. Of course, ensuring that we conserve our energy (eat, sleep, exercise well, basically healthy life) is crucial too. The relevant takeaway is this- how could critical situations be avoided at low energy, and how to effectively use and conserve one’s energy? These are questions to think about as we face challenges in our daily life.
There is an entire chapter dedicated to the use of spies, and this verse perfectly sums up the need for it. Information is power, the more you know, the better you will be in making informed decisions. Therefore in situations characterized by lack of information, one of the most effective ways to seek out information is through other people. Whether it is asking questions, listening to other people, or even using spies, the critical idea is certain information is easier to gather through other people.
