Creative Innovation

The Stratagem of a Transporter

Materializing Out of Thin Air

Sometimes, watching Star Trek on television, I wonder whether or not some day we can actually “transport” people over a beam of energy and rematerialize them somewhere else. The technical considerations aside, we can learn from this concept via yet another of the 36 Stratagems:

“Create something out of nothing.”Perhaps the best way of helping you understand this concept is by using the example of 3M’s PostIt note pads. I’m sure you’ve used them before, those yellow sticky paper pads that you can stick on and peel off virtually anything. Have you ever wondered how such an incredibly useful thing came to be? Well, the idea for the pads didn’t initially arrive out of deliberate research. In fact, what 3M’s engineers came up with one day was an adhesive – a glue – that was neither very sticky, nor very non-sticky. It was a half-way kind of thing, and 3M didn’t know what to use it for. It was too strong for some applications, and too weak for the rest. It was an invention that was… nothing. Then, one clever 3M person decided to put it on a notepad, and created the first prototypes of “relocatable” sticky paper. He sent these prototypes around the company, and people started to use them. Demand for the “prototype” increased so much, that this engineer called a stop to its limited production, and asked 3M to consider marketing it as a real product.

The rest is history.

Another example of creating something out of nothing is demonstrated to us by the Coca-Cola® Company. Remember when they discontinued the sale of the “original” Coke®, and introduced the “new” Coke®? Remember how the public went into an uproar and demanded that they make the old one again? Well, now we have the “new” Coke® and Coke-Classic®. The company effectively created something – an issue, a public uproar, free advertisment – out of nothing. Before the company stopped producing the original formula, nobody complained, and nothing was happening. They decided to fill the vacuum, by materializing, out of thin air, a “new” need for the original Coke®.

Such is the stuff legends are made of.

In your life, try to take advantage of this valuable stratagem. Look at things that you had never considered useful, and try to think of uses for them. Not only is this going to benefit yourself in the long run, but it also reduces the amount of garbage in the environment. Who ever said that cyborgs can’t be environmentally-friendly?! Even intangible things can be converted and made useful. Perhaps you know a special song or poem by heart, but never thought it could help you in any real way. Well, why don’t you use it as the basis for a memory story? If you know it so well, you can attach memory images onto it, and use it for an upcoming essay exam.

Make a commitment to reconsider everything “worthless” in your life, and dream up new applications for them. You will soon find that there really is nothing in the universe that is totally worthless. Usually the best ideas are derived from things that people had overlooked (as sometimes the best books that are published were ones that had been rejected by other publishers!).

General Strategic Theory

Beyond the Stratagems

We have covered quite a lot of strategic theory thus far. Perhaps you have found it rather difficult to absorb so much information. Don’t worry. Relax. Once you have the basic foundations of those concepts in your mind, your subconscious will automatically think of ways to put them to use. In this section, I will discuss ideas about strategy that do not fit into any specific category, and so I present them as a complete collection.

A Time To Recharge

Timeouts in the battlefield

One of the key things to keep in mind when contemplating command decisions is to understand the need to take a break. Soldiers must rest, tanks refuelled, artillery reloaded. When studying or working hard, take a 10-minute break, for every 50 minutes you work. Use the break to rest your mind, and allow your brain to consolidate the information into your memory. When I take my breaks, I usually drink a herbal tea with some gotu kola in it (see Chapter Nine). I focus on nothing in particular, and just allow my mind to wander, while subconsciously I am actually reviewing the material I just learned. When I am working, such as writing something, or designing a computer program, I let my breaks serve as launching pads for new ideas. By relaxing yourself, you free your imagination to consider all kinds of possibilities, the constraints of logic and concentration no longer in place.

The Shortest Path

Save Energy Even While Using MaxOK®

Do not prolong warfare. It is to your best interests to expedite the process and minimize your “exposure” to the effects of war. In other words, find the shortest route to your objective. If you have to secure a degree at college, take only the required courses, and then the easiest ones as electives. While it is enlightening to learn as many subjects as possible, do so in your spare time. It is strategically inappropriate to jeopardize your grade point average by taking more courses than necessary, or taking more difficult courses to enjoy a “challenge.” If it is information and more education you seek, go to the library or sign up for courses that do not affect your GPA. If you want to learn a foreign language, take it outside of your college in another institution. If you want to learn about quantum physics, go to a bookstore or library, or read the textbooks of students in those classes.

I am not advocating laziness or a superficial education. I am suggesting that education can be found outside of the traditional educational system. Remember, your grades will summarize how others perceive you whether they are potential employers, or admissions officers for graduate school. Take every consideration to maximize your GPA, and minimize the risks of lowering it. In warfare, the enemy’s front lines contain both strong and weak points. These are of tactical interest. By concentrating one’s forces on the weakest points, it is easy to maxok them and break through. Thus, in any set of courses for college or university, there are easy and more difficult courses. It is up to you to determine which ones the easy courses are, by asking around and doing your own research. Note, however, that what others find easy you may find difficult. Some students will breeze through Computer Science 101, while others will prefer a humanities course. You are responsible for gathering your own information and making your own decisions in this matter.

The Best Defense

Traditional martial arts theory teaches the fighter that the best form of defense is not to engage in battle. In other words, don’t initiate the fight, and try to prevent it even if the enemy provokes you. That does not mean you become super-wimp and let other people walk all over you. Cyborgs don’t take that kind of treatment. You must learn to fight only when absolutely necessary, only when there is no other route to your objective. When applying this to business, don’t startle or offend your clients or other people you work with. Attempt to persuade, rather than intimidate. Negotiate rather than attack. One of the best negotiation tactics is to listen to what the other party has to say. Absorb the information, and then try to build around this structure to reach an agreement. If everyone talks at the same time, nobody listens. If you find that you do not understand the other party’s side of the story, ask questions, tell them exactly what you do not understand. Get them to be specific about their descriptions. Try to analyze the situation objectively, without subjective emotions or personal prejudices. Again, fighting is the last mode of action to take.

Commitment to Battle

If efforts to prevent war fail, then you must be totally committed to the cause, and concentrate your power into warfare. If your negotiations fail, then anniliate the opponent using maxok. If you cannot avoid taking a certain course, then maxok it, and do your best. Once you’re committed, there’s no turning back. Otherwise, you would have wasted your energies. If you keep quitting once you start your projects, the accumulation of all the energy wasted in those aborted attempts would amount to a considerable sum. Obtain information about your choices, consider carefully, but once you decide what to do, you have to be committed.

Remember, once committed, once battle begins, you must take the shortest path to victory. Once you have decided to do a certain assignment out of a variety of choices offered by the teacher, then you have to concentrate on that assignment, and not spend time musing about the other choices that you didn’t choose. I stress again, maxok requires good judgment, both before, and during battle. Always remember Stratagem Number 36: Reassessment, Retreat, Reconsideration, Regroup, and then Re-enter the battle.

Sun Tzu gave us the analogy of warfare as likened to the use of a crossbow. Energy is spent on bending it, until it bends no more, and then the decision to take action is the releasing of the crossbow, transforming all the potential energy into kinetic energy, swiftly targetting and destroying the opponent. Thus, once committed, be swift, silent, and deadly.

Finally, the superior strategist will understand two things about energy: He can combine them – as in synergy – and he can use momentum to increase their power. This last concept is likened to a large boulder rolling down a hill. As it gathers momentum, it becomes progressively harder to stop. Once you start to study, no matter how difficult initially it is to get into the proper frame of mind, it becomes easier to continue (to a certain extent). Like the boulder sitting on top of the hill, it takes a bit of effort to push it and start it rolling, since its inertia must first be overcome. Likewise, in all human endeavours, it is always hardest to get things started, but once you do it, it is easier to keep the wheels turning. Have faith in yourself. You’re a cyborg. You can handle it!

Information

The Ultimate Resource

One of the last things I want to talk about in this chapter is the key to success in our modern society: Information. There is nothing more valuable than information. With the proper information, you can obtain anything. Power, money, you name it. But the keyword here is “proper.” Information is useless if it does not fit the requirements of a particular situation, and the only way to obtain proper information is through research (see Chapter Six).

In all your battles, you have your personal energy, both mental and physical, to manage. Those are of supreme importance. The other thing you should be concerned with, is the management of information. I use this term loosely, to encompass everything that you can know which will enable you to achieve success. This includes not only the specific material in the textbooks and lectures for a certain course, but also “extraneous” information such as where the professor’s office is located, how to use the library’s resources, the phone numbers of your fellow students, and – of course – school holidays. A basic rule to follow is that you should try to obtain as much information about anything and everything as possible (but don’t overexert yourself in this mission of reconnaissance). By having a large reservoir of information at your disposal, you will be able to draw on it for sources of guidance and inspiration when making command decisions.

The Mind of the Strategist

Putting it all together

In this chapter we have discussed many issues and concepts. Combined with everything else you have learned, or will learn, in this book, you have at your service a very powerful synergistic programme towards achievement of your goals. Understand that each individual tactical advantage – such as memory skills, advanced sleep schedules, reading methods, nootropic nutrients – cannot function properly without being guided to their proper targets via an overall structure, a master strategy.

From time to time, perhaps biweekly, take a look at the blueprint for success you drew up at the beginning of this chapter. Look at your BigT, and see if it’s really what you still want. If not, then look at the reasons you wrote down for choosing it when you did, and determine your new BigT. You’ll have to do the same thing with the SmallT’s. Finally, examine your list of enemies, and reconsider them as well. Write down any thoughts you may have at the time but which don’t necessarily fit into any particular category, and refer to these again in the future. They may hold the key to new insight which you never realised before.

A final thought: Military commanders always keep a log of their actions. It has been said that you can tell your future by looking at where you’ve gone before. Commanders and generals look at their records, and see their previous paths. They also learn from mistakes they made by reading their thoughts at the time those decisions were made. Likewise, I recommend you keep a journal, and record your life in it. You don’t have to go by a day-to-day listing. Just write in it whenever you feel the need to, or when something important happens, or when you have to make a crucial command decision. It will serve you well, and let plot your trajectory by your previous flight path, and learn from your past failures and successes.

Oh, and keep the journal safe and secret, away from the enemy spies! In the next chapter, we will learn the secret of…

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