Skip to main content

Losing Battles, Winning Wars

“… the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong…”

-- Ecclesiastes

“It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong — but that’s the way to bet.”

— Hugh E. Keough (sometimes attributed to Damon Runyon)

Between 218 BC and 216 BC, Hannibal of Carthage defeated one of the greatest armies — that of the Roman Republic — in not one but three decisive battles. Battles of the Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae were so shrewdly won by Hannibal against such great odds, some of the tactics employed by him are studied to this day.

But Rome didn't capitulate.

Romans decided to bide their time until their advantages of resources ultimately turned the wind of the war. Hannibal was soundly defeated 15 years later not on Roman soil but at Carthaginian battlefield.

Sometimes resilience is the difference between ruin and survival.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quotes from "The Social Leap"

These are the lines from William von Hippel in his book “The Social Leap” that I found to be incisive and insightful. “The ability to kill at a distance is the single most important invention in the history of warfare, because weaker individuals can attack stronger individuals from a position of superior numbers and relative safety.” “As if division of labor were not enough, Homo erectus then sealed the deal with the single most important innovation in human history: the control of fire.” “Long before the invention of writing (which is only about five thousand years old), human culture had become cumulative by virtue of our oral storytelling traditions .” “When we weigh up the costs and benefits, we see that farming afforded our ancestors some assurances against starvation, but at the cost of various new illnesses, reduced stature and longevity, excruciating halitosis, and often a far longer working day. The end result was that early farmers worked harder to achieve a worse life than
Post a Comment
Read more

Quotes from "Atomic Habits"

 Here are the quotes from James Clear's "Atomic Habits" that I found insightful: “When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it.” “Once we fit in, we start looking for ways to stand out.” “When the effort required to act on your desires becomes effectively zero, you can find yourself slipping into whatever impulse arises at the moment.” “… the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.” “… avoiding a 33 percent loss is just as valuable as achieving a 50 percent gain” “When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different. By combining your skills, you reduce the level of competition, which makes it easier to stand out. ”
Post a Comment
Read more

Appreciating Uncertainty

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is. And knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” — John Allen Paulos Uncertainty causes anxiety and fear . And these emotions may lead to displaced anger and poor judgment. What should we do when we face uncertain odds in the near future? “You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all.” — Euripides What if we re-interpret the uncertainty? What if in uncertainty, lie opportunity? After all risk and luck are two sides of the same coin. Win or lose, uncertainty enables us to learn. “The difference between predictions and outcomes is the key to understanding a strange property of learning: if you’re predicting perfectly, your brain doesn’t need to change further… Changes in the brain happen only when there’s a difference between what was expected and what actually happens." (emphasis mine) — David Eagleman So when we predict the future and the predictions turn out to be wrong, we
Post a Comment
Read more