Sunday, October 17, 2004

The Art of War

It's been a long time since I read The Art of War by Sun Tzu or The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, but I wonder what they say about sitting back, shutting up and letting your opponent screw himself. I bet they advise it, probably just not using that same phrasing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"...supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." -- Sun Tzu

My dad taught my how to play ping pong when I was a kid. I'd get agressive and try to slam the ball and end up hitting the net or missing the table altogether. Dad would always win. Finally he told me his secret: play defensively. Wait for your opponent to make a mistake, then capitalize on it. Once I learned to just play and let my opponent make mistakes while I tried not to, I began to win some games. The better I got at not trying to win, the more games I won. I find that lesson to be directly applicable to life in general.

-- Chosen