What is a "water rabbit"? Why is it never mentioned in the article outside the title?
Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
31–40 of 49 posts
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#32There's a quote that's apparently not actually by Sun Tzu but a similar/related source that says: The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. The wise man delights in establishing his merit The brave man likes to show his courage in action The covetous man is quick at seizing advantage And the stupid man has no fear of death - Su-ma Ch’ien I wonder if a…
> I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the…
We ran the Clausewitz vs Sun Tzu A/B test and we know how it went. "War is merely the continuation of politics by other means"
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#33There's a quote that's apparently not actually by Sun Tzu but a similar/related source that says: The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. The wise man delights in establishing his merit The brave man likes to show his courage in action The covetous man is quick at seizing advantage And the stupid man has no fear of death - Su-ma Ch’ien I wonder if a…
Or if you didn't miss one of the malicious compliant story on reddit.
Hiring (transferring) stupid in for the time when the department is trimmed per order.
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the…
For extra mischief points, you get to map these four groups to the four groups of developers listed above :)
{
:Wise => Architect that actually writes code
:Brave => The guy who refactor old code
:Covetous => Project manager
:Stupid => Count as -1 head because it take half an engineers time to help him and another half to refactor any code he's written.
}
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#35Sun Tzu’s Art of War is one of the most overrated pieces of military advice. The writing is beautiful, the analogies are nice, and it is easily comprehensible to an outsider, but the advice is so generic as to be useless while sounding profound.
Have you ever gone to war? Have you ever been the mastermind behind a war on another? How can you say it’s overrated? It’s timeless and simple for a reason.
I have used lessons from the Art of War for playing competitive games.
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#36There's a quote that's apparently not actually by Sun Tzu but a similar/related source that says: The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. The wise man delights in establishing his merit The brave man likes to show his courage in action The covetous man is quick at seizing advantage And the stupid man has no fear of death - Su-ma Ch’ien I wonder if a…
The Noble’s Sword uses intelligent and courageous people as its tip, honest and honorable people as its body, and virtuous and good people as its edge
— The Three Swords, Zhuangzi
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#37What is a "water rabbit"? Why is it never mentioned in the article outside the title?
"Water Rabbit" is a reference to the Chinese Zodiac, as in "Year of the Water Rabbit". I have no idea what this could mean in the context of the article other than offering a poetic-sounding title.
Just as improbably, it could also be a missing comma typo for Water, Rabbits, and Logs, since the author refers to all of those things separately.
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, deception. > inexperienced commanders constantly forget to apply deception ... My tactical checklist says ‘use deception’ And what deception have you used in warfare? Or other spheres?
For example I might use one sub-unit to conduct a feint to draw the enemy's focus and then use my other sub-units to conduct an attack in another area. If you don't have a checklist to think about that sort of thing almost everyone tends to go into tunnel vision and put all their units on a conveyor belt towards the objective. People still need to be explicitly told to use deception. It's specific useful advice that…
I have to ask. I recall reading that Sun Tzu suggests the value of giving a formidable enemy a route to flee, lest you accidentally force them to fight despite being ready to rout. Is that practical advice in modern warfare? From the cheap seats that I occupy, it seems like the goal is to kill or capture and allowing an enemy to flee is a failure.
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
For example I might use one sub-unit to conduct a feint to draw the enemy's focus and then use my other sub-units to conduct an attack in another area. If you don't have a checklist to think about that sort of thing almost everyone tends to go into tunnel vision and put all their units on a conveyor belt towards the objective. People still need to be explicitly told to use deception. It's specific useful advice that…
I have to ask. I recall reading that Sun Tzu suggests the value of giving a formidable enemy a route to flee, lest you accidentally force them to fight despite being ready to rout. Is that practical advice in modern warfare? From the cheap seats that I occupy, it seems like the goal is to kill or capture and allowing an enemy to flee is a failure.
He didn't mean don't kill or capture the fleeing enemy, only giving them the opportunity to do so. The idea is that nothing is more dangerous and likely to fight with all his strength than a man who knows he can't get out, but give a man the hope that he can and he will use all his strength to escape.
I'm not sure if it was also Sun Tzu or perhaps Marcus Aurelius who also mention that the most vulnerable state an army can be in is when it routs (this is borne out historically, as most battles with very heavy casualties on one side suffer them during a rout). So if you allow the enemy a gap to flee you have options to either spare them or wipe them out depending on your goal as a commander.
Re: Water rabbits and logs: The nature of Sun Tzu’s war, reexamined
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have to ask. I recall reading that Sun Tzu suggests the value of giving a formidable enemy a route to flee, lest you accidentally force them to fight despite being ready to rout. Is that practical advice in modern warfare? From the cheap seats that I occupy, it seems like the goal is to kill or capture and allowing an enemy to flee is a failure.
He didn't mean don't kill or capture the fleeing enemy, only giving them the opportunity to do so. The idea is that nothing is more dangerous and likely to fight with all his strength than a man who knows he can't get out, but give a man the hope that he can and he will use all his strength to escape. I'm not sure if it was also Sun Tzu or perhaps Marcus Aurelius who also mention that the most vulnerable state an arm…
My favorite example of this is from the Battle of Mohi[0] during the Mongol conquest of Europe. The legendary Mongol general Subutai left a "hole" in the their encirclement of the Hungarian army. He did not want the crossbowmen and cavalry of the Hungarians making a last stand on "death ground" as Sun Tzu calls it. Thus, they fled through this "hole" only to be cut down individually by Mongols on horseback.