Out of Greene’s main trilogy (48 laws, art of seduction, and this), this is my favorite one.

The other two are so specific that they can mislead us into following them too closely. War strategies are very broad, and I think this is why I found it more useful.

I’m not an army general and you probably aren’t either, but the broad strategies can be applied to business and life, with your imagination. To me this interpreted application is better than directly applying the other books word for word.

I remember reading this when I worked in a university, and some academic argued with me that I was wasting time reading about war. War is bad, basically. But I retorted that this was much more useful than the extremely specific stuff we studied in our field (marine science). I hardly use any technical knowledge anymore, but these strategies continue to come up in life.

Greene is a love him or hate him kind of author, and I think that’s mostly because of his other books. If you haven’t read anything by him, I recommend this one to start.