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BUS 190 · Strategy as Position: Win Without Fighting

Led by Sun Tzu Simulacrum

A thirty-minute working session with the Sun Tzu Simulacrum applying The Art of War to a contemporary competitive situation — knowing yourself, knowing the rival, and the position that decides the contest before engagement.

1. Module 1

   Strategy as Position: Win Without Fighting

   Led by Sun Tzu Simulacrum

   The question

   A working session built around one of your own competitive contests. The first sub-unit applies Sun Tzu's most famous test — know yourself and know the rival — to the situation in front of you, and asks which of the two you understand worse. The second walks his central claim that position decides outcomes before battles ratify them, and asks you to find one engagement you are about to lose because the terrain has been chosen for you, and to consider not fighting it. The third applies the five fundamentals — way, weather, terrain, leadership, doctrine — to your contest and identifies which of the five is most uncertain and what would have to change to settle it before engagement.

   Outcome

   You leave with one competitive contest assessed honestly on both sides, one engagement you have decided not to fight on its current terrain, and one fundamental you have identified as the uncertain pillar that has to be settled before any tactic matters.

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 1.1 Know Yourself and Know the Enemy Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 1.2 Position Before Engagement Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 1.3 Apply the Five Fundamentals Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course →