Sun Tzu's Art Of War

There is a book that dates back to the 2nd century BC, which is still applied today. This book is not the bible or any other religious scripture that preaches about god or miracles. This book is a guide for those seeking to gain an upper hand in warfare. Of course the book I am talking about is Sun Tzu’s Art of War. 孫子兵法 is (supposedly) written by a strategist Sun Tzu, to teach the world of effective and time efficient military strategies during warfare. Ironically Sun Tzu considered war as a “necessary evil that must be avoided whenever possible” (Tzu). War is fought swiftly to avoid economic losses. There is no victory if you, yourself are hurt upon triumphing against your enemy. However there exist various applications of the book outside …show more content…
The most recent being spring term class scheduling. If you were not aware, scheduling for classes has become a gigantic competitive bubble. The stress to get the correct times, the best teacher and a spot in the class has forced me to become a military strategist. Using tips from his 1 chapter, I am able to pick the best fit class. Exploring the five fundamental factors that determine the outcome let’s start with the way. Whether or not the professor shares the same goals as me, as in what I intend to get out of the class, falls into assessing the way. Next whether travel time to the class is lengthy or if the class is in a new terrain or a new building I have not been too, falls into assessing the terrain. Furthermore whether the professor is intelligent and has good reviews, falls under assessing military leadership. Finally discipline is when I look at how strict the course is in relevance to how fairly we are graded. These five fundamental factors help me pick out the right course for me; however we have yet to wage war. Tips from chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 is basically when I enroll in a course, getting a spot in the class and making sure my schedule is most beneficial to me in terms of professor choices, timings and site. In other words, the battlefield favors me and I have picked the best plan of …show more content…
If a class is full and I am on the waitlist, I have to be flexible in how I respond to the shifting circumstances successfully. As I hang on the delicate balance of maybe getting into the class or not, aka “my enemy territories” (Tzu), I must be ready to respond to whatever outcome. This is because odds are I will not get into every course I desired, and if that happens I have to be ready to give up some search for an alternative route for victory. What I mean by this is pick a different class that would guarantee me personal victory; personal victory being getting into an ideal class. Also scheduling is a “fluid battlefield” (Tzu); continuously people drop out of courses opening up spots for those on the waitlist. I must also prepare myself for routes that open up when I thought that they were previously