OurWord.See how people before you handled it.
Contents All

Strategy and competition

Thucydides

History

Thucydides (Ancient Greece · c. 460–400 BC) — History.

Strategy and competitionPre-Qin and classicalHistory

What actually happened?

In the second year of the war a plague broke out in Athens and killed thousands. Thucydides caught it and survived. Writing about it later, he did not say where it came from or why; he left that to others. He set down what it was like: heat in the head, red eyes, then bleeding in the throat and tongue, symptom after symptom in order. He did it, he said, so that if it ever broke out again, people would recognise it.

He did not treat hope as capital

In the Melian Dialogue the Athenians tell the weaker side that hope comforts those with something to spare, and for the rest it means staking everything on what they cannot see. Count what you hold first.

When someone says 'we will come and help', ask what exactly they have said.

He let a decision be reopened the next day

In a rage the Athenians sentenced a city to death, regretted it by morning, and held the assembly again. A second ship caught the first. For anything that cannot be undone, leave a night.

Before firing someone, finish the process; do not announce it in the group chat.

He asked why the accounts differed

When eyewitnesses disagreed, he did not hurry to find who was lying. He asked whether it was memory or partiality, which tells you which part to discount.

Two colleagues tell the same story in opposite ways: ask which side each was on, and how long ago it was.

How do I use it today?

Pick one thing you are stuck on and write three lines: what the other side counts and what I actually hold; whether this decision can wait one night before it goes out; which of my accounts is the first and which is a second, independent source. His one judgement runs through all three: see the facts clearly first, then decide whether to move.

Deep read

When He Only Counts StrengthBeing right does not mean anyone will act for youThe Athenians said at once: leave right and wrong aside; the Melians staked everything on help that never cameThe Vote He Regretted by MorningLeave yourself a way to take back what you decide in angerA whole city was sentenced to death in one day, and a second ship raced the firstNot the First Account You HearTest even your own impressionsWhen eyewitnesses disagreed, he asked first not who was lying but why they differed

Read alongside

MachiavelliBoth wrote about how the strong behave. Machiavelli teaches a prince how to use force. Thucydides sets down the Athenians' line, 'the strong do what they can', as they said it, and sets down what came of it. One teaches what to do, the other records what happened after it was done. Sima QianBoth were historians who wanted the facts straight. Sima Qian travelled the country and questioned the people involved. Thucydides checked each eyewitness against the others, and asked why they differed. One relied on going and asking, the other on checking and asking why they do not match.

Further

Machiavelli Gandhi Sima Qian On War

Lines to keep

right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power

I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion

I did not even trust my own impressions