🤣 Great movie. That was me. Billy is a great guy and we remain friends to this day.
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
"The Thirty-Six Strategems
I'm very impressed that you know the 36 Stratagems.
I'm Vietnamese-American. I know it because my Vietnamese friend introduced me to it. He read translated Chinese literature growing up. His grandmother was Chinese. Both of my grandfathers were Chinese. Vietnam has a long history with China.
I OCR'ed (Optical Character Recognition) the book for posterity.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mdncfz8vq4wexukw7cjay/Thirty-Six-Stratagems-of-Ancient-China.doc?rlkey=kl5m3h5fs3a0eip3srwv1puqn&dl=0
Bookstores went out of business. Borders, Crown Books, Books-A-Millions, etc . . .
Not only that, TV, Cable TV, Internet, movies, streaming movies. We will entertain ourselves endlessly to stupidity.
Nobody reads any more.
I thought it was pronounced the way it's spelled: tzu.
wins against Hikaru* "well ****!"
Nobody reads any more.
This is unbelievable.
A shopping mall is looted. The only store that is not looted is a book store!
https://twitter.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1690078570503081985
Nobody reads any more.
This is unbelievable.
A shopping mall is looted. The only store that is not looted is a book store!
https://twitter.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1690078570503081985
When I lived in Saint John (in Canada) there was a riot after a Hockey game.
A bunch of people broke into a music store downtown and stole several musical instruments.
Luters!
"The Thirty-Six Strategems
I'm very impressed that you know the 36 Stratagems.
...
Nobody reads any more.
Heh... I'm getting close to 70 years old, so over the years I've had time for a lot of reading.
To confuse your opponent, you must first confuse yourself. - Sun Tzu (Art Of War)
That is not in the Art of War.
But that is very good.
That's the idea behind Drunken Kung Fu.
I sometimes watch games like Starcraft... so thinking in terms of surface area is just obvious to me... but 1000 years ago that simple insight would already make you a better than average tactician.
There was no internet back then... so some people wrote a few tidbits down... like attack where your enemy is weak... great stuff, but not particularly insightful in the 21st century.
We are playing chess. We are playing toy soldiers. With very few exceptions, we are playing Chaturanga. Chinese Chess is practically Chaturanga.
You will be amazed at how much we don't know.
近而示之远,远而示之近.
"When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
A story that was told to me years ago by a Chinese friend... it comes in two parts:
Part 1
More than two thousand years ago, China was divided into more than a dozen petty states... some ruled by Kings, some by Dukes, each one alternately at war or at peace with its neighbors. On one occasion, the Duke of Shun was leading an army to intercept an invading enemy force. He happened to catch up with them just as they were crossing a river, with their army seperated into two parts.
His commanders strenuously urged him to attack immediately, while the opposing force was split in two. The Duke refused, saying that such a move would be dishonorable. Instead, he drew up his army and waited for the enemy to consolidate his forces before beginning the battle.
The Duke of Shun's army was crushed. Shun was destroyed, and was annexed by the neighboring kingdom.
Part 2
In the 1930s, Japan was invading China. They were fighting against both the Chinese Nationalist forces (under Chiang Kai Shek) and against the various splinter factions including Mao Tse Tung's Communists. Eventually the Chinese factions formed what was called The United Front against the Japanese, but prior to that they were at war with the Japanese and sometimes allied to, sometimes at war with, the central Nationalist government.
At one point, Mao spotted a chance for his Communists to hurt the Nationalists badly by attacking them from the rear just as the Japanese were hammering them from the front.
When some of his commanders protested, he replied "I am not the Duke of Shun".
There was no internet back then... so some people wrote a few tidbits down... like attack where your enemy is weak... great stuff, but not particularly insightful in the 21st century.
We are not that advanced.
I'm going to donate a Western Chess set and a Chinese Chess set to a beverage store in a Vietnamese shopping center. So people can play chess like it was a million years ago.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/public-chess-tables#comment-97731035
The "Internet". Sounds like a magic genie or something. Like it has all the answers..
Let me speak in a metaphor. That's right. Old school talking.
The "Internet" is like a room where you gather people. If the smart people get to talk, then we would be all be smarter.
The problem is, everybody can talk, so the dumb voices will drown out the smart voices.
And getting a crowd together to a magic show and sell "snake oil" is as old as time. Which is what the Internet is.
With the "Internet" you can hear everyone speak. I've got news for you, in speaking you can tell the truth or you can lie, just like real life speaking (retail) as opposed to "Internet" (wholesale).
Now there is "Internet" gambling. Internet scams. Just like it was before the "Internet".
The "Internet".
I can download the Bible in 10 minutes back in the America Online analog telephone days.
Reading the Bible is still the same slow speed.
Or any other books.
There was no internet back then... so some people wrote a few tidbits down... like attack where your enemy is weak... great stuff, but not particularly insightful in the 21st century.
We are not that advanced.
I'm going to donate a Western Chess set and a Chinese Chess set to a beverage store in a Vietnamese shopping center. So people can play chess like it was a million years ago.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/public-chess-tables#comment-97731035
So people can play chess face-to-face as opposed through "The Internet".
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/public-chess-tables#comment-97547261
And watch whom you are dissing. I did work for General Motors on the assembly line building Oldsmobile Cutlest Supreme's in Detroit. Then I became GM of the Boston Red Sox. I am now the GM of Walmart. I realize I've been a GM all my life.
No diss intended...just wondering about the GM. Funny, when I was watching Moneyball and Billy Beane turned the Red Sox down for GM.....I wondered who got that job.