Question 1

Q: What did this one leave behind?

Accepted Answer

Between 1936 and 1949 he wrote a set of essays that survive as method rather than as history: On Contradiction, On Practice, On Protracted War, and the strategy papers of the Red Army years. One habit runs through all of them. In a confused situation, find the single contradiction that governs the others, and put everything on it. The military writing turns that habit into operating orders: fight with the weapons you actually have, concentrate a superior force, finish one opponent before starting the next. What is collected here is that method, not the later career.

Question 2

Q: What actually happened?

Accepted Answer

In 1947 the Nationalist offensive was aimed at Yan'an, and he chose to give the town up rather than hold it. The columns that took Yan'an spent the following year garrisoning ground, strung out and tied down, while the field army stayed mobile and destroyed them piece by piece. Within a year the situation in the northwest had turned over completely. A place had been traded for the force that could still move, which is the same arithmetic as keeping the main body alive instead of reporting a win for every position held.

Question 3

The parts · One principal contradiction per stage

Accepted Answer

Many contradictions exist at any moment and one of them governs the rest. Solve that one and the others change shape by themselves. The work is not effort, it is identification, and then the harder half, which is putting the rest down for this stage. e.g. Weak product, few users, thin channel and a loud competitor were all shouting. Supply was the switch, and the money went there until it turned.

Question 4

The parts · Concentrate a superior force

Accepted Answer

Better to sever one finger than to wound ten. Do not fight several opponents at once; mass overwhelming strength at one point, break it, and only then move to the next. Spread evenly, it looks like fighting everywhere and punches through nowhere. e.g. Five features shipped in a quarter and not one of them gives anybody a reason to stay. One at full strength beats five at a fifth.

Question 5

The parts · No investigation, no right to speak

Accepted Answer

Conclusions belong at the end of looking into something, not at the beginning. A judgement that has not been struck back at by events is a sentence nobody has paid for, and the loop that makes knowledge is act, review, act again. e.g. Twenty books of method and no plan anyone can execute is normal. Those were twenty circuits other people walked.

Question 6

The parts · The weaker side plays for time

Accepted Answer

Against someone stronger, a quick decision is their game. The three stages are defensive, stalemate, counter-offensive, and the middle one looks most like no progress while it is doing the actual work of changing the rules of the fight. e.g. Nine months of cash left: cut three lines to keep one alive rather than starve four together, and stop reporting a win for every position.

Question 7

Q: How do I use it today?

Accepted Answer

Before the next quarter starts, get the team to answer one question out loud: what is the principal contradiction of this stage? Put the resources on that single thing, and name what is not being done because of it.

Question 8

Lines to keep

Accepted Answer

No investigation, no right to speak. Concentrate a superior force and destroy the enemy one by one. Better to sever one finger than to wound all ten. Keep the people and lose the ground, and you keep both.

Question 9

Q: What should I read alongside?

Accepted Answer

Napoleon — Both mass everything at one point, and then split: Napoleon wants the whole thing decided in one quick battle, and On Protracted War is built on refusing that battle until the fist has formed. Jeff Bezos — Opposite readings of what to hold steady. Bezos says bet on the need that will not change in ten years; this says the governing problem is different in every stage and yesterday's priority is how people die.

Mao Zedong

What actually happened?

One principal contradiction per stage

Concentrate a superior force

No investigation, no right to speak

The weaker side plays for time

How do I use it today?

Deep read

Read alongside

Further

Lines to keep