Sublime

There is an old aphorism that the key to strategy is playing the games you can win. Of course, life is not a game, nor is corporate management or statecraft. But the essential idea of focusing where you can “win” is neither trivial nor always followed.

Yet when it comes to the great captains of irregular warfare, the same can hardly be said. While there are many accounts of daring commando raids, and more thoughtful works that explore the complex relationships between elite military advisors and friendly indigenous fighters, there is precious little study of the principles that might be distilled

When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.

The lesson to learn from the American experience in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq is to be skeptical of concepts that divorce war or competitions short of war from their enduring political nature, particularly concepts that promise fast, cheap victory through technology.

It always pays a man to be right at the right time.

In war or any competitive game, you don’t pay attention to people’s good or bad intentions. They don’t matter. It should be the same in the game of life. Everyone is playing to win, and some people will use moral justifications to advance their side. All you look at are people’s maneuvers—their actions in the past and what you might expect in the f