On War
by Carl von Clausewitz, J. Graham, Anatol Rapoport · first published 1918
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Classic treatise on the theory of war and strategy, recommended to engineers and managers for thinking about strategy, leadership, and the relation between theory and practice; a broad, non-technical starting point.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I used to have a lot more time for non CS reading and actually made an Amazon list on this topic back in 2005: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2INJSM38... 1. On War (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Carl Von Clausewitz 2. Leadership: The Warrior's Art by Barry R. McCaffrey 3. Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach by Dandridge M. Malone 4. The Defense…
on “Ask HN: good books about military strategy?” ↗good read along similar lines - On War: Carl von Clausewitz http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117031.On_War
on “How to Use Philosophy as a Personal Operating System: From Seneca to Musashi” ↗…book) http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-Intelligence-Bu... Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick (Was really nice to see the details behind Mitnick's adventures) http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/d... On War By Clausewitz(Really enjoyed this book.)http://www.amazon.com/War-Carl-von-Clausewitz/dp/1448676290
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗…to add few more. You need to make a mind shift from dev/manager role to strategic senior manager. My recommendation is to read: Good to Great ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76865.Good_to_Great ) On War ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117031.On_War_Indexed_Ed... ( I'm not sure which English translation is the best ) and try to see how practical tips both give for decision making. Art of War is…
on “Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?” ↗Von Clausewitz's On War isn't a bad place to start. It goes from theory to strategy down to some place in between strategy and tactics. I think he planned to go further but died before completion. Of course it might have been…
on “The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part I: Bargaining for Goods at Helm’s Gate” ↗…here are the highlights: How to Read a Book (Adler) World Order (Kissinger) Der Grundrisse (Marx) The Grand Chessboard (Brzezinski) Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky) Gulag Archipelago (Solhenitzyn) On War (Clausewitz) The Hidden Persuaders (Packard) Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (Dennett) The Strategy of Desire (Dichter) Skills acquired: intentional syntopical reading, prediction of…
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗…refused to move away. Production prowess of modern city Moscow wasn't also nothing to scoff at, too. Von Clausewitz did write that war is a political means(I remember this from first few chapters from On War, though I forgot which translation I read) and one of the primary goals must be to 1) preserve one's own strength, while 2) deteriorate the opponent's fighting capability. Taking Moscow would have done…
on “Jeff Bezos explains the perfect way to make risky business decisions” ↗…tactical level. I absolutely think he's worth reading, but he's the opposite of Sun Tzu - a mass of dense, heavy, and often abstract text. There are multiple poor or incomplete translations of his famous On War which don't help. His smaller works like Principles of War and Tactics are much better starting points.
on “Notes from a Sun Tzu Skeptic (2019)” ↗Clausewitz's writing (and especially On War) is very abstract and philosophical, to the point that when he mentions specifics it's almost incongruous. There's a bit in On War where he descends from a lofty discussion on what victory means and…
on “A Clausewitzian lens on modern urban warfare” ↗I guess everybody's supposed to read Clausewitz and play wargames. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_War http://www.consimworld.com/
on “Thunder Run to Seoul: Assessing North Korea’s War Plan” ↗Aside: Clausewitz's "On War" was mostly a collection of notes posthumously published, not by any means a finished product. [1] For such, stick to Sun Tzu. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_War
on “The Logic of Envy” ↗