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Sun Tzu - The art of war

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    Sun Tzu - The art of war

    Do people really consider this to be a masterpiece?

    You could pick any quote and it's a bunch of yoda telling you no shit Sherlock lines.

    If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle
    In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity
    There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.
    Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.
    The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.
    Any random line from the book. They might as well have been written by one of the characters in Matrix 3.

    #2
    Its cliches weren't cliches when it was written. It's as old as Leviticus. It does amuse me though how, as a treatise on the strategy and tactics of using subtlety and deception in conflict, Norman Schwarzkopf used to say he read it all the time. Operation Desert Storm must have been just about the least subtle military operation in history.

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      #3
      Like the comparison to the word of Yoda, ppv.

      It’s got some memorable epigrams in it, but I never quite got how it became the business-speak bible spouted on MBA courses, strategic consultant quacks, or on the lips of every warrior-salesman I came across. I used to troll the Sun Tzu obsessives back with misquotes from Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution instead - another tome that could just as easily be interpreted/mangled as a business bollocks book.

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        #4
        I prefer Machiavelli.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Sits View Post
          I prefer Machiavelli.
          We all see you as very much a better to be feared than loved kind of guy, so this is no surprise.

          The business bollocks purveyors will find a peg to hang their nonsense on as required, without it necessarily being the fault of the peg.

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            #6
            Both Sun Tzu and Machiavelli seem to be books often read in prisons. Or maybe that's a movie cliché.
            I read a thing about the most borrowed books in Swedish prison libraries and it was exactly the books I'd expected. Very predictable.

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              #7
              Both Tony Soprano and Neighbours' Paul Robinson have read it so that makes it a stone cold classic to me.

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