“The Art of War” by Sun Tzu stands as a timeless classic offering insights into ancient Chinese military tactics.
The book’s concise maxims provide wisdom that’s not only applicable to the battlefield, but also to various aspects of modern life. These range from business and leadership all the way to interpersonal relationships.
Below, you can find the outtakes from The Art of War that were most relevant to me.
Remember, these are my condensed notes. Not a book review or a summary.
My Notes from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
“The Art of War” defeinitely requires interpretation. But once a reader can digest it via analogies, Sun Tzu’s strategic principles should resonate with anyone navigating the complexities of conflict and success.
Namely:
- Discipline is key.
- Act fast. Speed is also key. Don’t postpone
going to warbeing uncomfortable. Your time is much more valuable than comfort. - Supply your army at the enemy’s expense. Make them continuously engaged. Almost like employees.
- Avoiding mistakes is of higher importance than hitting targets.
- “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
- Harmony at home is key.
- Self-destructive character traits (of a general):
- Carelessness and recklessness that leads to destruction
- Cowardice that leads to slavery
- A delicate ego that can be provoked with insults
- Arrogance that’s sensitive to shame
- With a stronger opponent, capture something of value to them and they’ll act how you please
- Don’t fight if you don’t get anything out of it.
Note that I barely leave any interpretations and tend to focus on the conclusions.
That’s common across all my book notes. These points serve as reminders to what I’ve read and I trust my “former self” to have been able to extract the essence in a sequence of maxims.
As such, they’re easy to go through every once in a while and confirm where I stand on each.
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D. Petkovski
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