Strategy and competition
Mozi
Against war
Mozi (Spring and Autumn to Warring States · Lu · c.470–391 BC) — Against war.
What actually happened?
On the way home from Chu, Mozi passed through Song in the rain and tried to shelter under the gate of a village lane. The gatekeeper would not let him in. No one in Song knew the city had just been saved by him. The book closes the story with a line: whoever works in the unseen, no one knows his credit; whoever fights in the open, everyone sees.
Let him do the sum
The king of Chu said the argument was well put and still meant to attack. Mozi laid down his belt as a wall and had the engineer try nine attacks. After the ninth the king agreed to stop.
Your boss nods and keeps the schedule. Put the rival's shipped features on the table and ask which ones we can beat.
Hard on you because the load is heavy
A pupil he scolded asked if he was worse than the others. Mozi asked back: climbing a mountain, would you drive the horse or the sheep? The horse can bear it, so the horse is the one he drove.
The person whose draft is cut hardest is often the one the editor wants on stage.
Three tests for a new claim
When some said fate fixed everything and effort was pointless, he did not first argue right and wrong. He set three tests: where it comes from, what eyewitnesses say, what it does for people.
A tool everyone praises: find the precedent, then someone who has used it three months, then try it small for two weeks.
How do I use it today?
Pick something you are arguing, being scolded for, or being pushed to believe, and write one line each: what I could lay in front of him so he does the sum himself; who gave the heaviest work to whom; and the origin, the eyewitnesses and the use of the claim. All three of his methods do the same thing: give the other person something he can check himself.
Deep read
Read alongside
Further
Lines to keep
Whoever works in the unseen, no one knows his credit.