2018 Beyond the Classics discussion

Move over sun Tzu, step aside Clausewitz, there's another brilliant strategist to step into your ranks. Robert Greene can be seen as this generation brilliant strategist. His interpretation of wars is based on famous writings and his own internal philosophy. All of these ideologies stem and build into his book “The 33 Strategies of War.” However what separates this book from all other strategies of war is that because Greene doesn't have his own methods as he never served in the military. This leads him to write about ALL of the strategies that could be applied, from self-warfare and how to become a better person mentally to war on a grand scale and tactics that could be used.
Greene describes 33 strategies that are useful from daily life to conflict on a massive scale. However, throughout the entire book., there is an aggressive undertone that promotes the willingness to strike. With quotes such as “Avoidance of conflict becomes a habit, and you lose the taste for battle. Feeling guilty is pointless; it's not your fault you have enemies.” and “Ignore those who quail at any setback and call for retreat. Find joy in attack mode. Momentum will carry you through.” Now don't be mistaken that the text is centered around being an aggressor, quite the opposite. The strategies listed come from all different angles; to be an unrelenting force, to strike once and good, to hold your ground, to avoid conflict, they’re all there. Furthermore, Greene puts excerpts of text that support his statements on the sides of his pages so that if the reader did not understand the point that he is trying to make it will hopefully become clearer. However, reading and understanding should be fairly easy as the author uses simple but forceful language.
On the other hand, war is not only fought on the battlefield, it is fought internally, with conflicts between allies or conflicts in oneself. A strategy commonly employed by high-end business individuals is the “death ground strategy” in which one must realize that you are your own worst enemy, act like your back is against the wall and you need to fight like hell and have a sense of urgency to what you do. I personally tried this strategy and I can vouch that your productivity will skyrocket, your output is all of a sudden exponential and there is no limit to what you can accomplish, but you need to convince yourself that you're in a rush. Once you have, it's no holds barred.
The strategies are life changing if you take them to heart. One can read them individually or all together and pick out which ones suit you the best. I have walked away from this book a different person and I highly recommend that all people who want to have a good change in their lives read this book.

Rating: 10/10
Difficulty 5/10