Book Review | The Art Of War by Sun Tzu

Prelude

As some of you may know, I have been implementing a rigorous reading habit over the last 2 years. Last year, I have read 24 books and you can find information about them here in this blog post.

Reading fills me up with joy and it is surely the best use of my free time. Moreover, it is a strategic habit that makes me a well-rounded person for today as well as for the challenges waiting ahead that comes with big dreams.

This year, I'm planning to read 36 books. Reading this many books brings up its own responsbilities. You probably experienced forgetting the scenario of a movie you watched or a book you have read. While this is not a big deal when it comes to movies, for books, this is truly a waste.

Because, especially for non-fictoin books, we are reading works that encapsulate years of research/ experience by the brightest minds in the world. We surely want to take home some of the key points in these books, and leverage these learnings in life.

For this reason, reading a book is not sufficient. A good reader should highlight sections of importance while reading, and more importantly, should create a summary of the most important points in the book to digest the theme well.

So, here on my website, I decided to share a summary of all books I will be reading going forward. This way, it will help me digest the book, leave a package of things learned behind, and hopefully these book reviews will help other people when they need quick access to the book's wisdom.

The Art of War

I have picked up this book while travelling in Lebanon at the Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport. It has been on my to-read list for sometime and its small size makes it the perfect book to read while waiting in airport/ flying.

This book is interesting, as each teaching from Sun Tzu is accompanied by explanations by 11 ancient commentators such as Li Quan and Jia Lin. These makes the book both easier and harder to read. Easier, because, some of Sun Tzu's wisdom is ambiguous, and the commentators bring clarity to his teachings. Harder, because, you will get to read each teaching in several slighly different formats, and this feels repetitious.

As the name suggests, the book lays out tactics for winning in war:

Some of the teachings like above are highly relevant even to this day. For example, if you want to undertake something, Sun Tzu suggests to study the topic well in advance, and only get involved if you can be sure of success. Dive first, survive later mentality brings calamity.

Newsweek makes a point below about how the book is still relevant to this day:

This is a little bit of stretch. Why? While some of Sun Tzu's teachings are surprisingly relevant and important to this day like below:

Some teachings have lost its relevancy like below:

I think espionage does not count as one of the essential skills for today's leader anymore. The general advice I get these days is to ignore competitors, and focus on your product and win your customers. You are definitely not expected to get involved in espionage activities.

Although I'm against the glorification of Art of War as 21st century leadership book, the book still has a lot of valid points like below:

Sun Tzu is telling us not to be rigid, and adapt to the changes in dynamics. This is true to this day. We see companies/ people who do same things over and over again, develop expertise in a narrow area and forget adapting/ resist change. These are sure to fail.

Anti-War Rhetoric in The Art of War

This might surprise you but Sun Tzu is against employing wars, and he recommends using wars as only last resort:

Sun Tzu even recommends fleeing, pretending to be weak, getting into alliances to avoid wars that will surely end in defeat. And when the inevitable happens and war starts, he recommends keeping it short:

Conclusion

Overall, what I liked in this book was how Sun Tzu was realist about the tragic nature of war. He mentions that wars are only tools to keep the wealth of the nation, and should be employed with great care.

He does not glorify wars. He recommends getting involved in wars where you are sure to defeat your opponent and avoid others.

Some parts in the book where he talks about deceiving your opponents, or keeping your strategy secret even from your own troops may have been relevant at the time, but these are not helpful in today's management landscape.

Overall, I would definitely recommend reading this book, as it is a classic. While I can't say the whole contents of the book was helpful, there are pieces of information that are still relevant to this day. It also provides an interesting thought exercise as how to liken the ancient war tactics to today's business landscape.