Law 8: Perfect-economy strategy

Question 1

What are the four major defensive strategies?

Answer 1

8. Sniper
9. Counter-attack
10. Porcupine
11. Wu Wei

Question 2

What danger do you face if you get too enamoured by the allure of your goal?

Answer 2

The goal’s allure can blind you to the possible death traps on the way.

Question 3

How can you protect against the blinding allure of victory?

Answer 3

Ask yourself “What would victory cost?”

Question 4

What are the possible costs of victory?

Answer 4

• The goodwill you squander by waging war
• The fury of the loser if you win
• The time that winning may take
• Your debt to your allies

Question 5

What should you do if the costs of victory are too high?

Answer 5

• You wait for a better time to wage this war
• Try something in line with your resources

Question 6

What kind of victory do you want to avoid when waging war?

Answer 6

A pyrrhic victory - a victory that leads to a death spiral that you can’t recover from.

Question 7

How can you ensure victory with the use of minimum resources?

Answer 7

You use the David’s slingshot strategy

Question 8

What is the David’s slingshot strategy?

Answer 8

You analyse the enemy for their weaknesses.

You analyse your own strengths.

You match your obvious strengths with the enemy’s obvious weaknesses - and you hit them with your strengths in their weak spots.

Question 9

What is a modern name for David’s slingshot strategy?

Answer 9

SWOT analysis

Question 10

What are two ways that you can make the enemy lose energy in battle?

Answer 10

• false threats
• misleading allure of an easy victory

Question 11

How can you use deception to save energy in battle?

Answer 11

You can use false threats. The opponent squanders precious resources preparing for and trying to ward them off.

Question 12

How can you use deception to make the energy lose energy and find their weaknesses in battle?

Answer 12

You give the enemy the misleading allure of an easy victory. They launch a big offensive. This makes them squander their resources and lose morale. Meanwhile, you wait and pick out new weaknesses as they open up.

Question 13

What is a rational way to ensure that you don’t over-expend energy in battle?

Answer 13

Available-resource-driven war

Question 14

What are the steps to available-resource-driven war?

Answer 14

1. Evaluate available resources
2. Understand your strengths
3. Discover and understand enemy weaknesses and strengths
4. Decide end-point

Question 15

What is the opposite of available-resource-driven war?

Answer 15

Dream-driven war

Question 16

What is dream-driven war?

Answer 16

First you have a dream, then you gather the resources to achieve your aim.

Question 17

What is better - available-resource-driven war or dream-driven war?

Answer 17

Available-resource-driven war