It’s really good though but you have to be able to take the specific cases Sun Tzu is talking about and apply them to conflict more generally. Like the “look for different kinds of dust clouds to figure out what your enemy is doing” bit doesn’t apply much today, but you can look for tell tale signals that offer insight on the actions of your enemies. Are the pigs on foot or in cars? What kinds of weapons are they carrying? Are they in regular uniforms or riot gear. It sounds obvious, but most people have the same understanding of conflict as those ancient noble failsons
Y’all massively overestimate how much the average person understands about conflict and struggle. Sun Tzu has an important place and doesn’t deserve all this scoffing.
It’s also really easy to look at the advice and consider it obvious when you’re sitting at home reading it with plenty of time on your hands. It’s less obvious when you’re in a stressful real world situation.
The stuff that soldiers get taught in basic training also feels really obvious. “Stay physically fit. Be aware of your surroundings. Only point guns at what you want to kill. Follow orders quickly.” None of this should feel surprising to anyone with the most basic knowledge of what a soldier does, but drilling it in until it’s what you do automatically in the moment is important.
It’s important, because in stressful situations, most do not rise to the occasion, but rather fall back on their training. So drilling in the basics during training plays a very important role. It also applies to competitive sports as well.
Absolutely. As silly as it sounds, the couple of times I ended up in the middle of a firefight, i was able to function because I had a thousand hours in ARMA, combat LARPs, shit like that - Go for cover, direct civilians away from the fighting, shit like that. Didn’t have to think about it, just fell back on what I’d done in sim games thousands of times.
Going for cover is another great one. “Try to hide behind things so you don’t get shot” seems painfully obvious but in real life you can see how often civilians just freeze up instead.
Omg, i’m playing lots of helldivers rn and people absolutely will not use the simplest tactics! “The shield backpack is essential and you should kick anyone who doesn’t bring it” meanwhile i have used the clausewitz level strategy of lying down to avoid enemy fire
It’s really good though but you have to be able to take the specific cases Sun Tzu is talking about and apply them to conflict more generally. Like the “look for different kinds of dust clouds to figure out what your enemy is doing” bit doesn’t apply much today, but you can look for tell tale signals that offer insight on the actions of your enemies. Are the pigs on foot or in cars? What kinds of weapons are they carrying? Are they in regular uniforms or riot gear. It sounds obvious, but most people have the same understanding of conflict as those ancient noble failsons
Y’all massively overestimate how much the average person understands about conflict and struggle. Sun Tzu has an important place and doesn’t deserve all this scoffing.
It’s also really easy to look at the advice and consider it obvious when you’re sitting at home reading it with plenty of time on your hands. It’s less obvious when you’re in a stressful real world situation.
The stuff that soldiers get taught in basic training also feels really obvious. “Stay physically fit. Be aware of your surroundings. Only point guns at what you want to kill. Follow orders quickly.” None of this should feel surprising to anyone with the most basic knowledge of what a soldier does, but drilling it in until it’s what you do automatically in the moment is important.
Dang, good point, never thought of the armchair stress-free aspect before.
It’s important, because in stressful situations, most do not rise to the occasion, but rather fall back on their training. So drilling in the basics during training plays a very important role. It also applies to competitive sports as well.
Absolutely. As silly as it sounds, the couple of times I ended up in the middle of a firefight, i was able to function because I had a thousand hours in ARMA, combat LARPs, shit like that - Go for cover, direct civilians away from the fighting, shit like that. Didn’t have to think about it, just fell back on what I’d done in sim games thousands of times.
Going for cover is another great one. “Try to hide behind things so you don’t get shot” seems painfully obvious but in real life you can see how often civilians just freeze up instead.
Omg, i’m playing lots of helldivers rn and people absolutely will not use the simplest tactics! “The shield backpack is essential and you should kick anyone who doesn’t bring it” meanwhile i have used the clausewitz level strategy of lying down to avoid enemy fire