Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Its Rules for Winning without Conflict

2. Best Opportunities and Actions > 3. Minimizing Mistakes > 2. Less Is More

Which of the following issues is the least clear to you?

1. The best actions give us the fastest feedback as to their effects.
   5.3 Reaction Time

   5.3 Reaction Time

   "Mastering speed is the essence of war."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 12:2:16
   

   Situation: 

   When we choose how we want to pursue and opportunity, our first concern is minimizing mistakes. We don't want to endanger our current position or waste resources. It is natural to think that the best way to minimize mistakes in exploring opportunities is to go slowly and carefully. The problem is that slow reactions are almost always extremely costly in competitive environments. Of course, some forms of speed are extremely dangerous. For example, it is always dangerous to get heavily involved with a new opportunity before we have explored what is holds. Good strategy doesn't promote speed in the sense of a headlong rush.

2. The best actions conserve more of our limited resources.
   5.4 Minimizing Action

   5.4 Minimizing Action

   "Make good use of war.
   Make the enemy’s troops surrender.
   You can do this fighting only minor battles."
   Sun Tzu's The Art of War 3:3:1-3

   Situation: 

   Since Sun Tzu defines success in economic terms, we seek to do more with less. Every action we take or resource we use that we can eliminate is waste. In pursuing an opportunity, waste increases our risk of loss. If we try to improve our position by pursuing opportunity after opportunity by doing more and more different activities, our position grows more and more complex and waste multiplies . The result is that our position becomes more and more expensive and difficult to maintain.