Zhang

[]Passion

[]Strategic

[]The big idea

[]long run

[]customers focus

[]Meritocracy

[]Mission, values

[]Mentors

[]Contribution

[]A whole life (that works)

[]Just to make meaning (including money)

[]Success AND significance

I had a great meeting with L. John Doerr on Friday, and I learned that the success is not that difficult from him, or perhaps any of us. By the way, he is a very successful venture capitalist, backing Google.

In the next few days, I will post several lessons and advices from him in terms of his definition of success. Here is the checklist number one: Execution.

“Everyone has a good idea, but the execution is the most difficult one.” If we have an idea,  just go for it. Don’t wait for the approval, which is another way of saying “no.”

Game, a.k.a. analytical analysis, Section is the easiest one for some people at least good at maths. Here is one of the sample in terms of how to utilize the space in the limited test booklet.

Now what, China — the China?

Everything is going unconventionally. In Old Age people were burned by saying the earth is round. However, today Thomas Friedman is popular by publishing the World Is Flat. In the old days China is known as a Forbidden City, but now the China has become an world economic center.

If you haven’t heard of the latest news, you might continue reading this article. Now PetroChina, just go through Initial Public Offering in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, becomes the largest oil and gas company in the world with twice as much the capital as Exxon Mobile (the number two by then). Now let us run some Number One’s.

PetroChina is the largest Oil and Gas company by capital in the world.

China Life Insurance is the largest Insurance Company by capital in the world.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is the largest Bank by capital in the world.

China Mobile has the largest subscriber in the world.

Well, what’s it all about? Why the newly listed public-traded Chinese companies are so attractive? Is it babble behind all those Number One’s? There are many theories behind it, mostly from the economic perspectives, such as emerging market, state-planning policy, and infantry of the stock market. However, there is a new cultural facet as well. Being the number one or break the record is the dream and the pride of all Chinese people. Three-Gorge Dam …Damn to be the largest. The National
Beijing Theater gonna be the largest. The stock market gonna be the largest. . . . Well it is good when we run the figures while listening to the buzz — the largest. It is good because it show the attraction to the foreign investment; it is good because it will drive local and global economic growth; it is good because it will bring welfare to local and global citizens. People will keep pouring more money into the Stock Market nowadays with pride and enjoyment.

At the moment, it is a great scene and hopefully it will be happy ever after. The Chinese economy is still young, the intact market is still large, and the growth is still prominent. Now what? What will be the next thing after those glamorous achievement, which can be marked on the tomb stone of current leaders, as Thomas Jefferson put only three of his greatest achievements as his epitaph.

What really need to do is to cement the babble and transform the babble into the solid material; in other words, it might not be babble only if the China does something about it. Perhaps it is a dream, perhaps it is crazy, and yet it makes sense if you know the PetroChina, ICBC, and etc., from unknown to the largest industrial leader in the world. All of it happened over night of the Initial Public Offering. Nothing else can’t it have done? There might be one, which has been neglected by almost all the people in the whole country, politics.

In order to consolidate the growth of this unthinkable achievement, which is a huge babble from everyone’s eyes, the China needs to bring more political legitimacy (no matter what flavor, western democracy or Chinese Rules with special characteristics, or blend) to its citizens; to enforce the election law to elect, not appoint, real representatives to their constituencies; and to give more power to the people, but rather the public servants. Only if the China provides more protections and benefits for the people, especially ordinary people, to secure the colossal progress of its economic power, which is also determined by economic principles (either Marx to Smith or Ricardo. . .) China is on the edge of the cliff. It is dangerous but curable. If the China can build a 3-Gorge Dam across the Yangzi River, it can also build a freeway to transform the cliff. It is called being safe after being in danger.

That is so what? And that is so, the China.

To be continued.

Chapter Eight

Change

The secret of the LSAT is that all the tactics are from the extensive practice. You have to practice and see all the previous test before you can take the test. In the real tests, when you do the reading section, you need to have a clear idea of its own questions types, when you do the Game section, you need to consider the drawing and its two types of questions. When you do the logic, you need to know its categories.

“There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must be not attacked, towns which must be besieged, positions which must not be contested, and commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.”

Therefore, the ones who know the changes will ace the LSAT, and the ones who knows nothing about the change will not succeed. The test takers who do not know the change but take all the strategy as “as-is” will not get the answers right.

Therefore, the wise test takers have to know all the strategies and know why some questions got right, as well as knowing why some answer is wrong. By knowing the reason why some is right will help you to build the confident. Knowing why some is wrong will help you to avoid selecting the wrong again.

In order to manage the question well, you need to practice and practice. Practice makes you to find the questions types faster, practice makes your thinking clearer, and practice makes your answers more accurate.

The secret of the LSAT is not only getting more practice, but also analyze each questions to know exactly whether it is right or wrong and why it is so.

There are 5 mistakes also in the Art of War:
(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.”

You have to think carefully to avoid making the same mistakes in the “war”, let alone the LSAT.

===================================

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.MANEUVERING

VARIATION IN TACTICS

1. Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives
his commands from the sovereign, collects his army
and concentrates his forces

2. When in difficult country, do not encamp. In country
where high roads intersect, join hands with your allies.
Do not linger in dangerously isolated positions.
In hemmed-in situations, you must resort to stratagem.
In desperate position, you must fight.

3. There are roads which must not be followed,
armies which must be not attacked, towns which must
be besieged, positions which must not be contested,
commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.

4. The general who thoroughly understands the advantages
that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handle
his troops.

5. The general who does not understand these, may be well
acquainted with the configuration of the country, yet he
will not be able to turn his knowledge to practical account.

6. So, the student of war who is unversed in the art
of war of varying his plans, even though he be acquainted
with the Five Advantages, will fail to make the best use
of his men.

7. Hence in the wise leader’s plans, considerations of
advantage and of disadvantage will be blended together.

8. If our expectation of advantage be tempered in
this way, we may succeed in accomplishing the essential
part of our schemes.

9. If, on the other hand, in the midst of difficulties
we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate
ourselves from misfortune.

10. Reduce the hostile chiefs by inflicting damage
on them; and make trouble for them, and keep them
constantly engaged; hold out specious allurements,
and make them rush to any given point.

11. The art of war teaches us to rely not on the
likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness
to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking,
but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

12. There are five dangerous faults which may affect
a general:
(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him
to worry and trouble.

13. These are the five besetting sins of a general,
ruinous to the conduct of war.

14. When an army is overthrown and its leader slain,
the cause will surely be found among these five
dangerous faults. Let them be a subject of meditation.

Chapter Seven

Maneuver

In the real test day, all the strategy is developed based upon the numerous times of practice of the released tests. The good test takers need to adjust to the best situation during the test day. Doing the test in the real situation is totally different than the practice one in terms of the settings, the pressure, or the timing. The physical and mental situations vary between the real test and the practice one. In order to get better result, you need to change the unchangeable and take advantage the disadvantage. You thus need to maneuver the test to favor you regardless.

There are several ways to doing it, such as breaking the numerical order of the questions. Then you tackle the easiest one correctly and then go back to examine the hard ones. That is called the strategic skipping. By doing so, you might be able to turn the difficulty level that is against you to favor you.

The questions given by the LSAC are easy to the good test takers and bad for the bad test takers. It is just like two sides of the coin. Someone might think it is hard while other think differently. Therefore, maneuver is important to do the LSAT during the test day. If you want to weigh all the questions indifferently, the result is you won’t only get enough time, but you will lose free gift – getting easy questions wrong. However, if you think you will answer the hard questions first so that you left the easy questions to the end so that you do not have to think too hard on them when you are tired, then you are perhaps wrong. In this way, you will lose more scores due to the fact that you won’t be able to get to them. Even if you allocate time evenly, you will not give enough time for the hard ones while you miss too much valuable, but limited, time to answer easy ones. You will be puzzling about what you have missed even though you manage to finish all the questions at the end. If you answer the hard questions first, that is even worse, you will not only spent too much time on one questions, and left most unanswered, and you score will drop. It is you who is taking the test, but rather the test to you. It speeds up the fatigue process of the body and makes you more exhausted and overwhelmed even in the middle of the test. Therefore, balancing the time based on what says here. The time cannot be allocated too much for each question more than needed, but it cannot be allocated less time to questions that you do not have the time to think of it in a strategic way. So the time is the most important issue here.

So if you do not know the different questions types, you cannot succeed in the test; if you do not know which one at which you are most good answering, you cannot take it; if you do not know how long you can keep up with the consuming tests, you cannot get the highest score out of the test.

In addition, the good test takers are good at knowing themselves. They will use the limited energy to get the maximum results, they will balance the time to skip around to achieve the highest score, and they will answer the easy questions fast and correctly. All these are depending on your skills trained to spot the right answer creatively. Therefore, if you do take the test in the real test day, you will get the right answer out of the easiest questions, skip the hard questions to the end, eliminate the wrong answers that are either irrelevant or reverse, and select the right ones without a hitch. Doing the test in a way that get the more right answers than other test takers while finishing the test in a manner that is most in favor of you, you will get higher score than others.

If there are different types of questions in one page, just answer them all if they are all in you favor. Turn over your page if you do not even know what they are talking about, even though you are good at this questions type.

Therefore, the one who knows and reads this will get the higher score thereafter since it tells the secret of the LSAT. In the real test is like fight a war, you have to make a strategic planning and prepare yourself. Failing in a test is no difference than losing a war. So you have to have the consistent marks for your exam. You need to mark something that does only mean something to you. As long as you see the marks, you will react instantly where should you go and whether you will move on with this questions or not.(in the analytic questions, you need to know whether you will know the answer or in the reading you will see the clue or road map.) In this way, you do not have to worry about how long or how weird the passages are. You know where to move on and where to skip, where to find the answer and where to make an educated guess, and where the right answer lies and where the wrong answer hinds.

In addition, the energy you have keeps you from tiredness, and the strategy out of practice clears your mind to think fast. You are usually energetic at the beginning of each section, but less at the end thereof. So good test takers are left the hardest to the very end and answer the easiest earlier. So you need to do the easy question fast, assuring to answer those correctly with zero error. Also you need to leave the hardest to the end and answer it by elimination and guessing intelligently. In this way, you will turn over the force of the LSAC to confuse you, weaken its energy to exhaust you, and maneuver it in your favor. It is called to change the unchanged and beat the unbeatable. In this way, you drive the course of the test and determine the result, rather than you are anxious of waiting for the result without knowing how well you had done. It is another secret of the LSAT; in a word, maneuver.

In the next few chapters, you will know there are total several types of questions in the three kinds of passages. You can never mistake them, but you can easily to mess them up. You use different setting of strategy to ace different types of passages. Make sure you know the difficulty level in each kind of passages. That is important as others.

To be continued….

===================================

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.MANEUVERING

1. Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his
commands from the sovereign.

2. Having collected an army and concentrated his forces,
he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof
before pitching his camp.

3. After that, comes tactical maneuvering,
than which there is nothing more difficult.
The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists
in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.

4. Thus, to take a long and circuitous route,
after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting
after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him,
shows knowledge of the artifice of DEVIATION.

5. Maneuvering with an army is advantageous;
with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

6. If you set a fully equipped army in march in order
to snatch an advantage, the chances are that you will be
too late. On the other hand, to detach a flying column
for the purpose involves the sacrifice of its baggage
and stores.

7. Thus, if you order your men to roll up their
buff-coats, and make forced marches without halting day
or night, covering double the usual distance at a stretch,
doing a hundred LI in order to wrest an advantage,
the leaders of all your three divisions will fall into
the hands of the enemy.

8. The stronger men will be in front, the jaded
ones will fall behind, and on this plan only one-tenth
of your army will reach its destination.

9. If you march fifty LI in order to outmaneuver
the enemy, you will lose the leader of your first division,
and only half your force will reach the goal.

10. If you march thirty LI with the same object,
two-thirds of your army will arrive.

11. We may take it then that an army without its
baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost;
without bases of supply it is lost.

12. We cannot enter into alliances until we are
acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.

13. We are not fit to lead an army on the march
unless we are familiar with the face of the country–its
mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices,
its marshes and swamps.

14. We shall be unable to turn natural advantage
to account unless we make use of local guides.

15. In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.

16. Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops,
must be decided by circumstances.

17. Let your rapidity be that of the wind,
your compactness that of the forest.

18. In raiding and plundering be like fire,
is immovability like a mountain.

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

20. When you plunder a countryside, let the spoil be
divided amongst your men; when you capture new territory,
cut it up into allotments for the benefit of the soldiery.

21. Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.

22. He will conquer who has learnt the artifice
of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.

23. The Book of Army Management says: On the field
of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough:
hence the institution of gongs and drums. Nor can ordinary
objects be seen clearly enough: hence the institution
of banners and flags.

24. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means
whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused
on one particular point.

25. The host thus forming a single united body,
is it impossible either for the brave to advance alone,
or for the cowardly to retreat alone. This is the art
of handling large masses of men.

26. In night-fighting, then, make much use of signal-fires
and drums, and in fighting by day, of flags and banners,
as a means of influencing the ears and eyes of your army.

27. A whole army may be robbed of its spirit;
a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.

28. Now a soldier’s spirit is keenest in the morning;
by noonday it has begun to flag; and in the evening,
his mind is bent only on returning to camp.

29. A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when
its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish
and inclined to return. This is the art of studying moods.

30. Disciplined and calm, to await the appearance
of disorder and hubbub amongst the enemy:–this is the art
of retaining self-possession.

31. To be near the goal while the enemy is still
far from it, to wait at ease while the enemy is
toiling and struggling, to be well-fed while the enemy
is famished:–this is the art of husbanding one’s strength.

32. To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose
banners are in perfect order, to refrain from attacking
an army drawn up in calm and confident array:–this
is the art of studying circumstances.

33. It is a military axiom not to advance uphill
against the enemy, nor to oppose him when he comes downhill.

34. Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight;
do not attack soldiers whose temper is keen.

35. Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy.
Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

36. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.
Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

37. Such is the art of warfare.

Chapter Six

Arrangement

The test takers should get into the test location early than rush. The earlier arrival will at ease and get some rest before the test. The later arrival or just-on-time arrival will be tired and nervous, impacting their overall mentality to do the test. So the master LSAT takers direct the test rather than be directed.

So the good test takers are looking for a close test location to take the test. If it is not possible, just find a hotel to live the night before the test day. Thus if anything happen during the test, you can adjust to be most advantage to you whatsoever.

The relaxation just before the real test is important since the test is not only a physical challenge but also a mental test. You have to be relax and have enough sleep before you take the test. When doing the test, you need to answer the questions which are easiest to get it right for you, and answer some different questions later on. Then you will find a surprising result due to it, even though you skip some perhaps. So when you do all the LSAT without exhaustion, you will have better chance to get higher score than those feeling overwhelmed. When you are taking the test, you will get the best result. When you see the questions, the right answer will get out naturally.

Thus the good test takers will not get confused by the tedious languages; they will get the answers right even before the time is up.

It is very subtle and very amazing that the test seems becoming very easy. It is the key to get highest score.

Therefore, the strategy here is that the good test takers get all the easy answers right, and even though there might be the very hard questions, they can also get very high scores. Perhaps they need to guess for some questions, they prefer to use the elimination strategy to make an educated guess. Thus whenever good test takers are better at one question type than another, they can dig the right answers out even LSAC put that type at the last question. If the test takers are worse for one type of question, they will skip it first even though it is the first question in the section. Screw the numerical order of the questions in each section, but take the questions you are most at ease and therefore make sure it is right.

The good test takers are alive and the questions are just printout, dead. We are intelligent and can focus on our strength, but the LSAC cannot change the order, like computer-based GRE. Therefore we can target specific questions even in a reverse order, but there are no rules to prohibit us from doing it. Therefore, we turn the odds around to favor us. If so, the good test takers can get the most scores easily and correctly. There is no wonder that some of them can get the 179 or above. The LSAC only designed the test for the average people who LSAC expected to be around 150, 50 percentile. If that is the case, the LSAC will put more hard questions to limit the number of test takers to get higher score. If it is so some questions must be very easy to ace by most people. If you read it, if you know the essence of it, if you make use of it, and if you practice LSAT test with it, you will be several steps ahead of other people, and thus you will get most of the easy questions right. It is kind of the free gift of the LSAC; you are in a better position than average test takers to get higher score if you know this.

Thus, the secret of LSAT here is that you read the questions first before you read the passage. Doing so, you will be able to see the difficulty of questions and do the one which you are most comfortable with and skip the one with which you have most difficulties. You can turn to even the last page even if the LSAC left it there. You can find one no matter the LSAC put it on the first page of the section of the last page of the section, or no matter it is on the left hard of the question or the bottom right of the pages. All the questions are dead, but you are alive. You are in charge of the test rather than be led by the dead questions.

In addition, if you know each question types and you arrive early on the test day and relax well and confident, you can ace it no matter how the questions arranged in the real test day. If you cannot identify the question types, you cannot skip around and thus be induced by the attractiveness of the order; you will get confused and feel very tired when you move the end of each section. No matter how hard or how easy it is, you will get use the skipping around strategy to get the easy answer answered early and correctly.

Based on my experience, even those with 180 score, they are using this strategy, let alone others. Therefore, the LSAT can be aced by any of you no matter how hard it is; the key is to use the right strategy.

Therefore, planning the test and accessing your ability to ace the LSAT, skipping around so all the odds will favor you. If you will be getting tired at the end of each section and you will run out of time for the test, so you have to know when to take and when to skip. Knowing the different questions types even though they are asked differently, you will “smell” the right one it if you have practiced enough questions.

Furthermore, the best strategy of the secret of the LSAT is leverage yourself to a level to the extent that you do not have to think more than a second when reading the questions to figure out whether to skip. This intuition is out off the hundreds of questions practicing, and endless of practice day in and day out. By just reading the first few words in the choices, you will know whether the answer is correct or not.

Most people only see the 180 or 179 on the LSAT, and very desire for it. However, they do not know how hard they study and how systematically they analyze each question, and how many questions they have done, even how many times for even a question. Thus very few people get to the top, but practice and right strategy can get you there as long as you really understand the secret of the LSAT.

Therefore, answering the LSAT questions are like water moving downward. The test strategy is to avoid the hard questions and correctly answer easy ones. Skipping the hard ones and seizing the easy ones. Water is moving between banks. In the same principle, the good test takers can adopt the LSAT to ace it. Thus there is no unchanged principle or strategy to use, but the creative strategy to make the most score out of the LSAT. To use what you have learn to answer the questions that the LSAT presents; to use the unchanged secret of the LSAT to ace the derivatives of the LSAT. That is called secret of the secret of the LSAT.

To conclude here, there is no everlasting unchangeable and everything is comparable, just like the circle of the day and night.

To be continued….

===================================

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.

VI. WEAK POINTS AND STRONG

 1. Sun Tzu said:  Whoever is first in the field and
    awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight;
    whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle
    will arrive exhausted.

 2. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on
    the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

 3. By holding out advantages to him, he can cause the enemy
    to approach of his own accord; or, by inflicting damage,
    he can make it impossible for the enemy to draw near.

 4. If the enemy is taking his ease, he can harass him;
    if well supplied with food, he can starve him out;
    if quietly encamped, he can force him to move.

 5. Appear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend;
    march swiftly to places where you are not expected.

 6. An army may march great distances without distress,
    if it marches through country where the enemy is not.

 7. You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks
    if you only attack places which are undefended.You can
    ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold
    positions that cannot be attacked.

 8. Hence that general is skillful in attack whose
    opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful
    in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

 9. O divine art of subtlety and secrecy!  Through you
    we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible;
    and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

10. You may advance and be absolutely irresistible,
    if you make for the enemy's weak points; you may retire
    and be safe from pursuit if your movements are more rapid
    than those of the enemy.

11. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced
    to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high
    rampart and a deep ditch.  All we need do is attack
    some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.

12. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent
    the enemy from engaging us even though the lines
    of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground.
    All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable
    in his way.

13. By discovering the enemy's dispositions and remaining
    invisible ourselves, we can keep our forces concentrated,
    while the enemy's must be divided.

14. We can form a single united body, while the
    enemy must split up into fractions.  Hence there will
    be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole,
    which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few.

15. And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force
    with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits.

16. The spot where we intend to fight must not be
    made known; for then the enemy will have to prepare
    against a possible attack at several different points;
    and his forces being thus distributed in many directions,
    the numbers we shall have to face at any given point will
    be proportionately few.

17. For should the enemy strengthen his van,
    he will weaken his rear; should he strengthen his rear,
    he will weaken his van; should he strengthen his left,
    he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right,
    he will weaken his left.  If he sends reinforcements everywhere,
    he will everywhere be weak.

18. Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare
    against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling
    our adversary to make these preparations against us.

19. Knowing the place and the time of the coming battle,
    we may concentrate from the greatest distances in order
    to fight.

20. But if neither time nor place be known,
    then the left wing will be impotent to succor the right,
    the right equally impotent to succor the left, the van
    unable to relieve the rear, or the rear to support the van.
    How much more so if the furthest portions of the army are
    anything under a hundred LI apart, and even the nearest
    are separated by several LI!

21. Though according to my estimate the soldiers
    of Yueh exceed our own in number, that shall advantage
    them nothing in the matter of victory.  I say then
    that victory can be achieved.

22. Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may
    prevent him from fighting.  Scheme so as to discover
    his plans and the likelihood of their success.

23. Rouse him, and learn the principle of his
    activity or inactivity.  Force him to reveal himself,
    so as to find out his vulnerable spots.

24. Carefully compare the opposing army with your own,
    so that you may know where strength is superabundant
    and where it is deficient.

25. In making tactical dispositions, the highest pitch
    you can attain is to conceal them; conceal your dispositions,
    and you will be safe from the prying of the subtlest spies,
    from the machinations of the wisest brains.

26. How victory may be produced for them out of the enemy's
    own tactics--that is what the multitude cannot comprehend.

27. All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer,
    but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory
    is evolved.

28. Do not repeat the tactics which have gained
    you one victory, but let your methods be regulated
    by the infinite variety of circumstances.

29. Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its
    natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.

30. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong
    and to strike at what is weak.

31. Water shapes its course according to the nature
    of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works
    out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.

32. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape,
    so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

33. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his
    opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called
    a heaven-born captain.

34. The five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth)
    are not always equally predominant; the four seasons make
    way for each other in turn.  There are short days and long;
    the moon has its periods of waning and waxing.