At approximately 2,500 years of age, "The Art of War" has not only become one of the predominant guides on successful military warfare, but also a classic of history and philosophy in its own right. Various different editions of this book exist all over the world, and it can't be denied how much influence "The Art of War" had on many events throughout the history of the world.

What I found most interesting was that it could be read in so many different ways. More obviously, it's a guide on military and war, on how to win battles and how to efficiently make use of spies, fire, nature or the weather. But all around those aspects, the text is filled with words of advice which could be adapted to pretty much every scenario of life affected by opposition or antagonism. I can't pretend being eager to adapt those messages to my own life, and I'd definitely argue against living by the rules suggested by this book, but as a historical manuscript, it is incredibly important - and, to my personal surprise, also surprisingly short, meaning that it can be read over the course of one to three hours, depending on how fast you read and how thoroughly you want to explore the book. Furthermore, even if you may expect something completely different from such an old text, the sentences are well-structured, constructed in a very understandable way and generally very comprehensive, though that could be the advantage of the translated edition I've read.

Unless you read it for historical or educational purposes, "The Art of War" can be a very entertaining experience. The proposed tactical advices are interesting and provide some fascinating insight into what people thought 2,500 years ago - and since the book doesn't feel like it's as old as it is at all, also into how people might be thinking nowadays. My highest recommendation; this is definitely one of the important classics everyone should at the very least have taken a look at.

Finally finished the first book of this year! Yay! Took me a lot of time due to my exams and uni in general.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”


I wanted to read The Art of War for very long and I finally managed to get to it.

And I liked it. I think everybody should read it because many of the ideas from the Art of War can be found in different fields, for example in business.

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

“All warfare is based on deception.”

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”

“Danger has a bracing effect.”

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an ancient Chinese generals' instructions on war. Having listened to this book left me with feelings of calmness. Everything is strategically and logically explained. I could transfer myself to the ancient world of China and see how they applied all the suggestions. Sort strong, yet calm and thoughtful.

So this is my last book review before itikaf and Eid break. It is the first time I am using audio books and I'm sure it will take some more time for me to get used to it. The narrator 'Moira Fogarthy' however did an excellent job.

The Art of War consist of 13 chapters and each chapter explains about different aspect of war. It is amazing how this old Chinese book is still applicable and gives amazing insight to different strategies associated with war. The information it contains is not only limited to war but it can be very useful in every stage of life.

According to Sun Tzu avoiding war should be the primary focus as it causes destruction and suffering but if it is unavoidable then this book gives a great idea of how you should gain advantage over your enemies in the battlefield and win the war.

While listening to the book I felt like a war general listening to my orders and getting trained for a war.

i love applying master sun's the art of war to my business ventures and utilizing the ancient wisdom meant to decimate people by the thousands to colour every mundane interaction in my everyday life as if it were a battlefield

Pues empecé a leerlo y aluciné. Sobre todo por la sensación de que podía aplicarlo a la vida actual, es decir, al trabajo, a las relaciones personales, a un equipo... A TODO. Teniendo en cuenta que sitúan su origen en torno al año 400 a.c, pues flipé mucho más.
La de frases que he subrayado son incontables. Pero... el libro se me empezó a hacer monótono y pesado. Me ha costado terminarlo. El último capítulo de espionaje me ha hecho reengancharme un poco.
Creo que hablaré más de él en el blog. Tiene algunos detalles curiosos que me gustaría contar.

The Art of War against corporate takeover of user rights



"If you don't pay for the product, then you're not the customer, you're the product", media analysts have told us plainly a long time ago.

Be that as it may, the GoodReads experience has both common and unique features. The past years have seen MySpace raise and fall, Facebook shamelessly mocking users privacy and still going on, Twitter changing their API according to the phase of the moon and keeping personal data hidden from users, Google purging G+ of "fake names" (that's pen names for us, booknerds!) and so on so on.

These corporations have taken over the internet. You, the user, receive a service for free, to relate with your friends, to keep your personal photos, to share your thoughts on the books you've read. You're targeted by advertising, your personal data is being stored on the company's servers, and, sooner than you think, you're dependent on these companies because of social networking, because you made yourself at home into a sub-community with your friends and preferred groups or reviewers. While you can get away (easier or harder), you leave behind content, topics, friends, functionality you got used to.

Your Content and Social Interaction Is Belongs to Them.

These corporate services keep control over users in three ways.

1. Proprietary service
The software is on the company's servers, and nowhere else. It's not available to users, no one knows how it works and what and how is data processed for storage, for reading (private data), for security and logging, for auditing, for removals.
2. Over-reaching ToS
Under the excuse of needing it to function or to defend their business, the company takes more rights for itself over user content than actually necessary. GR ToU is particularly misleading because it claims all sub-rights of copyright, while telling users that they keep copyright (it's true, but they took all rights to do anything with the content, anything at all). The ToS is also contradictory and impossible to abide by. Really. Since users usually don't read the fine print, they assume common sense. Which is not that common after all.
3. Reduced inter-operatibility for data exchange
These sites are silos of content under a company's control. There are more or less features to retrieve your data, and more or less APIs to build alternative clients. On the first, GR stands well, comparing to others. You can send your review to a blog on two sites when you post it, you can export the cvs with your reviews. (only reviews, no topics, no comments, but other sites have nothing). On the second, the API seems relatively poor, compared to what it could provide.

The Art of War against users rights: proprietary service, misleading on copyright, lack of enough inter-operability with other sites or applications.

Aside from common traits shared by any proprietary service, there are essential differences, here on GoodReads.

Community librarians
GoodReads' mission has been to create a public database of all books ever published. GR has provided the software online, but it is community librarians who have added and maintain this database, their work for free, of tens of thousands of records edits, over the years. GR site has reached its market value through the work of its community.
And it's this work they sold out to Amazon earlier this year.

A site for readers
GoodReads has been known and advertised as "a site for readers", to interact and share their opinions in book reviews and group conversations. The site has thousands of well-written, intellectually pleasing reviews, free essays prompted by the book, and opinionated pieces of booklovers all over the world.
Nowadays, the success or failure of a book in the digitized and self-published world is no longer in the traditional, professional outlets alone, it's in the popularity and free dissemination of information of readers who shared their thoughts on this site.

The value of this site has always been MORE the work of the users, than other services enumerated above. The GR community is not randomly composed of users signing up only for personal interest and personal friends (or marketing), as other social networks. It has been created by working together on the books library, by their reviews, by their blogs.

TODAY...
Some of these reviews are now removed. Bookshelves that remind of the authors behavior are now removed (and others remain). Reviews that inform readers about a children's book author being convicted of pedophilia (!), have been removed from the site. Reviews that use the book for an essay on GR/Amazon or on the faith of startups, or illogical terms in corporate ToS, have been removed. Reviews re-posting content of the removed reviews have been removed at their turn.
Some of top 25 reviewers on this site are threatened by GR/Amazon with removal of their account. Paul Bryant's reviews, Manny's reviews, have been deemed "potentially off-topic" and have been deleted.


...I can see how the issue of exercising corporate control over users content is truly enraging here, on a site significantly made by these contributors. It's unavoidable we come to this, in my opinion (corporations always do), and GR/Amazon has all keys to the kingdom, but I can see why it's so disappointing and enraging. Your content is theirs to do as they please, their software works as they want, your choices are take it or leave it.
The internet is no longer for sharing (nor for porn!), it's for corporations to exercise their control over users.



The Community Power
GoodReaders have started protests all over the place. Many reviews have been posted, in protest, arguing their points against GR/Amazon actions. Many of them have been removed.
Irony and sarcasm abound, in reviews posted the last week, in topics in GoodReads Feedback group, and on remote sites. Many of the reviews have been removed, some of the topics have been closed.
Rounds of ironic flagging have been made; flags claiming to abide by the ToS language in its inept and auto-contradictory "rules" have been sent to GR staff, in the hope they'll come to their senses. They seem to have missed the irony.

The only solution long term, to corporate control, is to create competitive services based on principles of freedom of users. In all three aspects: Open Source software, same license for content for the service as for other users (or minimal for it to function), and inter-operability of networked services.


This content is also available at http://sftomorrow.wordpress.com/2013/...
n  n
This work by Alfaniel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

مراجعة كتاب صن تسو كاملة...
كتبت تعليقا كلما سمحت الفرصة بالتوازي مع المراجعة.
----
للتذكير:
الكتاب عبارة عن مجموعة من الحكم و النصائح المباشرة، يسقطها البعض بالأساس على العلوم الاستراتيجية الحربية كأحد الكتب الكلاسيكية في فن الحرب. ولكن أيضا يعتبر مرجعا رئيسا لكتب الإدارة و القيادة بشكل عام. البعض يسقط النصائح نفسها على “التجارة”.

لماذا الكتاب مهم؟

كما أسلفنا، قيل أن أمريكا اعتمدت خططا منه في حرب عاصفة الصحراء، و اعتمده الفيتناميين في حربهم ضد امريكا، و اعتمده الإسرائيليين في حروب كثيرة مع العرب، و يتم تدريسه كأساس للعلوم العسكرية. وهو نفس الكتاب مصدرا من مصادر علوم الإدارة و القيادة و العمل المالي.

الكتاب في مجمله بدون اسقاطات، تبدو كحكم واهية، ولكن دراية بسيطة بالتاريخ تخبرك أن بعض النصائح بالكتاب هي بمثابة قانون استراتيجي للمنتصرين.

كتبت مفصلا تعقيبا على كل باب هنا:
http://www.ahmedabdelhamid.com/arblog...

n  The Art of Goodreadsn

1. Lotz says: The greatest books are the ones you never have to read, and the greatest words are the ones you never have to speak. Likewise, the greatest book reviews are the ones you never have to write.

2. There are five types of books: (1) Ones I have read. (2) Ones I have not read. (3-5) It's complicated.

3. To begin a book, find its weakest point. This is commonly the first page.

4. Do not turn the page too slowly, as you will make it greasy; do not turn it too quickly, as it might tear.

5. If a sentence is giving you trouble, make like you're going to skip over it, and then read it all at once really fast to take it by surprise!

6. If a sentence is particularly difficult, yell it at the top of your voice, trying to imitate the sound of the cock when the sun peaks over the distant mountains.

7. Do not let your teachers or professors know if you have actually read your assigned readings. Keep them in suspense. Then you can subject them to your will.

8. To impress the erudite girl, take well-known quotes and misattribute them, so that she can correct you. She will feel smart, and you will rush in for the kill!

9. If you can see the sun, you do not have the keenest vision. If you can hear the thunder, you do not have the keenest hearing. Likewise, if you get the most likes, you do not have the best review. I do.

10. Love is a battlefield, that's why I always wear camouflage on first dates.

11. You can apply the lessons of military tactics to any aspect of your life, as long as you don't mind going to prison.

12. Fun fact: If you read the English translation of The Art of War backwards, and in a Jamaican patois, it exactly reproduces the original Chinese.

13. If a word is giving you difficulty, you have two options: (1) use a dictionary, you dolt; (2) skip over it, because who has time in life for such things?

14. The Empire in Star Wars could totally have won if they had just used more spies.

15. The same goes for Sauron in The Lord of the Rings.

16. When running out of ideas for a book review, the wisest course of action is to stop.

17. The second wisest action is to keep going.

Evidently, it seems, for the last couple thousand years, EVERYONE has been using the same textbook on how to conduct a war. It also seems to be that nobody even knows for sure who wrote the book or when, but everyone uses it anyway. Included in this book are precious reminders that strategy helps you win, retreating helps you not die, if you outnumber the enemy 5 to 1, attacking would probably be a good idea, and also if you're a tiny country surrounded by powerful countries, it might be time to make an alliance or two. If these sound like things you don't already know, but would like to know, then this book is for you. However, in the off-chance you're in a position to command a war against enemy forces, and you DON'T study this book THOROUGHLY, you're probably going to die. Horribly. And all your country's women, children, and probably most of the men will be raped and slaughtered in such gruesome manner as to make those easily victorious soldiers who just did the raping and slaughtering vomit from their own gruesomeness.

O operă foarte interesantă, e fascinant cum pare atât de actuală, deși e scrisă acum mai bine de 2 mii de ani. Nu trebuie să cunoști foarte multe detalii despre Rusia de azi pentru a realiza că multe dintre razboaiele sale au for duse având la bază strategia lui Sun Tzu.
Nu cred că evaluez această carte corect, e evident foarte bună, trecând proba timpului, dar poate nici nu am înțeles/o la adevarata sa valoare. Cred că ar trebui citită măcar o dată de mai multe persoane, pentru a înțelege poate puțin mai bine multe “războaie” care se dau în viața de zi cu zi, cu doar pe tărâmul de luptă.

“Întreaga artă a războiului este bazată pe ��nșelătorie.”

“În război, numai numărul nu aduce nici un avantaj. Nu înaintați biziundu-vă exclusiv pe forța militară.”

“Ordinea sau dezordinea depind de organizare, curajul sau lașitatea de împrejurimi, tăria sau slăbiciunea de dispunere.”

“Războiul este asemănător focului; cei ce nu vor să depună armele pier uciși de arme.”

“In război, cea mai bună soluție este să cucerești statul intact.”

“Dacă inamicul este puternic și eu sunt slab, mă retrag pentru moment și mă feresc de orice angajare.”

“Dacă armata este dezorientată și lipsită de încredere, suveranii țărilor vecine vor stârni dificultăți.”

“Cel care este prudent și așteaptă un inamic imprudent va fi victorios.”

“Cunoșteați inamicul, și cunoaște-te pe tine însuți… Când nu-ți Cunoști inamicul, dar te Cunoști pe tine însuți, șansele tale de victorie sau de înfrângere sunt egale.”

“În general, a comanda mulți oameni, e același lucru cu a comanda câțiva. E o problemă de organizare.”

“Dacă dorești să stimulezi dezordinea pentru a atrage un inamic, trebuie să fii, tu însuți, foarte disciplinat.”

“Acela care are sentimente de omenie și de compătimire și nu se teme decât de pierderea oamenilor, nu poate renunța la un avantaj temporar pentru un profit pe termen lung și este incapabil să abandoneze ceva pentru a se apuca de altceva.”

“Când trimiși lui vorbesc în termeni măgulitori, înseamnă că inamicul dorește un armistițiu.”

“A câștiga bătălii și a cuceri obiectivele fixate, dar a nu reuși să tragi foloase din aceste rezultate, este de rău augur și se numește “pierdere de timp”.”

“Dacă nu sunteți în pericol, nu vă bateți.”

“O armată fără agenți secreți este exact ca un om fără ochi și urechi.”

"لا تفتح على نفسك عدة جبهات في وقت واحد، تحالف مع أحد الأعداء حتى تنتهي من الآخر”.