Minimal Effort, Maximal Impact

• Before doing something, see if there are alternatives that require less effort.
• A swift victory is much more desirable than a drawn out battle ¹ and especially a stalemate ². Recognize that doing something has costs in time, effort, and opportunity
• Pick your fights wisely. Do not blindly charge at the enemy ³. The goal is victory not glory [^2.19⁴. Choose fights that you are guaranteed to win ⁵. Conserve your energy for efforts that create true value ⁶⁷⁸.
• Make it look easy “What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels at winning with ease” ⁹
• Learn to use the resources of others. ¹⁰. Using others’ work is much better than one’s own since one does not need to expend the cost and can easily reap the benefits. This extends to using people as much as using material ¹¹.
• Find other experts and leech of their knowledge. These will act as your guides in a particular domain ¹².
• Power comes from the ability to achieve victory without expending any effort.

Links §

• The Art of War

Footnotes §

1. 2.5 ↩

2. 3.4 ↩

3. 3.17 ↩

4. 3.10 ↩

5. 4.15 ↩

6. 7.30, ↩

7. 10.23 ↩

8. 12.17 - 12.22 ↩

9. 4.11 ↩

10. 2.15 ↩

11. 2.18 ↩

12. 7.14 ↩