Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The Art of Focus: Centering Yourself (Pt .2 )



The initial emphasis of yi quan practice is to enhance the health of the practitioner through the act of centering oneself to the ground before ever moving the stress any part of the body to one's feet and beyond. 

The grand objective is to achieve the state of "yin palms and yang feet." Some people does it through the practice of Baguazhang.

Click here on the negativity of stress. 

Through the practice of the internal martial arts, one can minimize the damage from the stress

More to come.  ... 

Saturday, June 25, 2016

The Survival of The Fittest: Mongoose vs. Black Mamba



“These are the ways that successful strategists are victorious. They cannot be spoken or transmitted in advance. ... Before the confrontation, they resolve in their conference room that they will be victorious, have determined that the majority of factors are in their favor. Before the confrontation they resolve in their conference room that they will not be victorious, have determined a few factors are in their favor.

If those who find that the majority of factors favor them, will be victorious while those who have found few factors favor them will be defeated, what about someone who finds no factors in their favor?

When observing from this viewpoint, victory and defeat will be apparent.”

- Art of War 1 (Paraphrased from the Sawyer's translation)

So what are the strategic and tactical factors that gives one animal "the strategic advantage" over another? 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Dao of Assessing Strategically


Smart strategists usually assessed a situation to understand the risks and the rewards behind it.

They measured the configuration of the setting by recognizing the dimensional parameters of the prevailing factors.  

This enabled them to know the particular odds before deciding whether prevailing over it, is possible.

There is more to assessing strategically than reading chapter 1 of Sunzi's essay.




Saturday, June 18, 2016

Are You The Expert?


In any business realm, there are the specialists, the gurus, the experts and so forth. There are also those who operate on the notion that life is simple and easy. They visualized the objective and everyone else performed the "wet work."

Most people do not want to comprehend the connectivity of a situation. Nor do they want to anticipate all of the best and worst case scenarios that could occur. Comprehending the possible exceptions for each specific scenario is too much of a chore.

By living through an assortment of simple principles and their simplification of life, they just want to be inspired with happy news and false hopes.  

In summary, this same group of people just wanted a projected result and return home with the intangible feeling of self-satisfaction regardless how insane the idea is.  

The Gist of The Expert 
To be the true expert who can reap the rewards, he must be able to connect the dots.

Comments From The Cook Ding's Kitchen

"Engineers vs everyone else in meetings. This isn't comedy, it's documentary.  ... BTW, red lines with invisible ink = red background and "invisible" ink.  ..."

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Profiting in the Info Economy: Using the Various Indexes to Assess the Future.



(revised at 18:18)
Following are some of the indexes that some of our associates have utilized  to assess the state of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP) of the information economy:


Terrain
The # of packages that are being delivered around our globe offer the trend state of the world's economy. 

I saw a story somewhere between 2007 and 2008, where the the state of the logisitic business ( FedEx , UPS, DHL, etc) predicted the immediate slowdown of the global economy because of the declining quantity of freight shipments during the previous year or the previous three consecutive quarters for that year.
Viewing the Consumer Marketplace
Effectiveness of Logistics and Process
More to come

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Why Do Some Strategists Fish?. (Part Two)

Some strategist fish because of the challenge.  Other people fish because of the prize.   

By fishing, some  have learned the practice of standing.  Other have learned the virtue of patience.  The rare few learned the method of reading a situation by 
the eight changes.   

During the fishing process, everyone learned the practice of solitary thinking.

In stressful situations, the smart strategists have always focus on the target while being aware of their surroundings.  

When in doubt, go fishing. 




Friday, June 3, 2016

Why Do Some Strategists Fish?. (Part One)


I am not a big fan of pop culture,  Most of it are mind numbing and superficial. One night while surfing the boob tube, I bumped into this ABC show and found this scene to be interesting for a cyber moment.

Click on the Youtube video and listen to the dialogue from Season 3, Show # ?? of Scandal.


The dialogue for the actual scene

Rowan, Do you fish? 
Jake,  No.
Rowan, You know, people who don't fish think that fishing is lazy or boring, but it is the complete opposite.   ...  There are a hundred little decisions to be made, variables to be considered.   ... And you're never quite sure what made the difference.  ... Did I cast too high, too far to the left? Did I reel it in too slow or or or too fast? Is the lure too shiny or too dull? Do I stay here, or should I go over there? And you know it's not luck, but you do not know By how much. ... People are predictable unchanging, monotonous.  . . .  They use the same language, they offer the same excuses, they make the same mistakes.  . . . People are endlessly disappointing because you hope they won't be. ... I knew that she would need me. . . .   I knew that you'd come here begging for help.   ...  This was all predictable, all disappointing.... This is why I am fishing, because I am never disappointed out here, because I don't expect anything, because anything is possible.  ... I can be hopeful out here, even in failure, because I know if I just go out there, around that tree, it might be different, something might be different, something I do might make a difference.   ."


The Gist of a Real Strategist

"In planning, never a useless move.   In strategy,  no step is in vain."  - Chen Hao

The difference between an amateur strategist and a professional strategist is that the professional strategist knows what could happen next by recognizing the configuration of the Big Tangible Picture.


Question From the Compass Desk
q: Is this your strategic situation?

Conclusion
Days change, seasons change, most people don't change.
Which is why some of us preferred the study of science.  It is more fun and can be so unpredictable.


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

More Notes on Dr. Ralph Sawyer's "Lever of Power" Book


Source: QuoteAddicts

Lever of Power: Deception Theory and Practice in China and the West
   Although the term always had negative connotations, deception continued to be zealously employed to attain political and military aims in both China and the West throughout history. However, only China pondered its nature and developed an extensive literature on its theory and application in military contexts.

Apart from examining the concept's parameters, Lever of Power will discuss the important categories of practice, illustrate them with numerous instances of deception's successful application in both cultures, and provide an overview of important pronouncements and refinements over the ages in works as diverse as Sun-tzu's Art of War, theT'ai-pai Yin-ching, and the Stratagems of Frontinus and Polyaenus.

More to come.