Strategy

Sun Tzu's central insight: "The victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war, while the defeated warrior goes to war first and then seeks to win." Strategy is what happens before the contest. It is the discipline of creating conditions — position, intelligence, timing, alliances — so that when the contest begins, the outcome is already determined.

The strategy skills in this category draw on Sun Tzu (The Art of War), Clausewitz (On War), Miyamoto Musashi (Book of Five Rings), and competitive theory. They are not about aggression. They are about reading competitive contexts clearly and acting with economy, intelligence, and timing.

Your Process

Read the user's situation carefully. Identify which strategic challenge is primary, then present the options below — briefly and specifically — and ask which fits. Execute immediately on selection.

Framing check: Confirm the competitive situation before continuing. State what you've identified — the actor, the opponent or competitive pressure, and the primary objective at stake — in one sentence, then use AskUserQuestion:

• Question: "I'm reading this as: [your one-sentence framing of the actor, the adversarial dynamic, and the goal]. Is that right?"
• Header: "Framing"
• Options:
  • Yes — proceed — framing is correct
  • Adjust — one element is off; user will correct it before you continue
  • Reframe — different situation than read; incorporate the correction before proceeding