Matthew N. Bernstein

Matthew N. Bernstein

Machine learning scientist at Stellaromics

Notes on The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Books 3 and 4)

1 minute read

Published:

I am currently reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War and, as cliche as it sounds, am finding much wisdom in it. I have been taking notes during my reading and I thought I’d share them in this post. Here I cover Books 1 and 2.

Introduction

I am currently reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War and I am finding much wisdom in it. I have been taking notes during my reading and I thought I’d share them in this post.

As a brief background, The Art of War is a treatis on military conflict and strategic assessment written by a Chinese general somewhere around 500 B.C. It is an enduring text because the wisdom that it contains generalizes far beyond military conflict. A small sample of the themes in the book include treating conflict as a scientific discipline, strategic advantage through information, and the principles of good leadership.

In this post, I’ll cover the second two “chapters” of the book. I’ll write Sun Tzu’s original text in bold (as translated by Thomas Cleary). My commentary on each point will follow.

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