Datasets:

LuisGPTNeo

/

RobertLLMready

like 0

### Book:After she deposed her husband, Emperor Peter II, taking sole control of

### Book:Russia in 1762, no one thought she would survive. But she had no

### Book:preconceived ideas, no philosophy or theory to dictate her policies.

### Book:Although a foreigner (she came from Germany), she understood Russia’s

### Book:moods, and how it was changing over the years. “One must govern in

### Book:such a way that one’s people think they themselves want to do what one

### Book:commands them to do,” she said, and to do this she had to be always a

### Book:step ahead of their desires and to adapt to their resistance. By neverforcing the issue, she reformed Russia in a strikingly short period of

### Book:time.

### Book:This feminine, formless style of ruling may have emerged as a way of

### Book:prospering under difficult circumstances, but it has proved immensely

### Book:seductive to those who have served under it. Being fluid, it is relatively

### Book:easy for its subjects to obey, for they feel less coerced, less bent to their

### Book:ruler’s ideology. It also opens up options where an adherence to a

### Book:doctrine closes them off. Without committing to one side, it allows the

### Book:ruler to play one enemy off another. Rigid rulers may seem strong, but

### Book:with time their inflexibility wears on the nerves, and their subjects find

### Book:ways to push them from the stage. Flexible, formless rulers will be much

### Book:criticized, but they will endure, and people will eventually come to

### Book:identify with them, since they are as their subjects are—changing with

### Book:the wind, open to circumstance.

### Book:Despite upsets and delays, the permeable style of power generally

### Book:triumphs in the end, just as Athens eventually won victory over Sparta

### Book:through its money and its culture. When you find yourself in conflict

### Book:with someone stronger and more rigid, allow them a momentary victory.

### Book:Seem to bow to their superiority. Then, by being formless and adaptable,

### Book:slowly insinuate yourself into their soul. This way you will catch them

### Book:off guard, for rigid people are always ready to ward off direct blows but

### Book:are helpless against the subtle and insinuating. To succeed at such a

### Book:strategy you must play the chameleon—conform on the surface, while

### Book:breaking down your enemy from the inside.

### Book:For centuries the Japanese would accept foreigners graciously, and

### Book:appeared susceptible to foreign cultures and influences. Joao Rodriguez,

### Book:a Portuguese priest who arrived in Japan in 1577 and lived there for

### Book:many years, wrote, “I am flabbergasted by the Japanese willingness to

### Book:try and accept everything Portuguese.” He saw Japanese in the streets

### Book:wearing Portuguese clothing, with rosary beads at their necks and

### Book:crosses at their hips. This might seem like a weak, mutable culture, but

### Book:Japan’s adaptability actually protected the country from having an alien

### Book:culture imposed by military invasion. It seduced the Portuguese and

### Book:other Westerners into believing the Japanese were yielding to a superior

### Book:culture when actually the foreign culture’s ways were merely a fashion to

### Book:be donned and doffed. Under the surface, Japanese culture thrived. Had

### Book:the Japanese been rigid about foreign influences and tried to fight them

### Book:off, they might have suffered the injuries that the West inflicted on

### Book:China. That is the power of formlessness—it gives the aggressor nothing

### Book:to react against, nothing to hit.In evolution, largeness is often the first step toward extinction. What is

### Book:immense and bloated has no mobility, but must constantly feed itself.

### Book:The unintelligent are often seduced into believing that size connotes

### Book:power, the bigger the better.

### Book:In 483 B.C., King Xerxes of Persia invaded Greece, believing he

### Book:could conquer the country in one easy campaign. After all, he had the

### Book:largest army ever assembled for one invasion—the historian Herodotus

### Book:estimated it at over more than five million. The Persians planned to build

### Book:a bridge across the Hellespont to overrun Greece from the land, while

### Book:their equally immense navy would pin the Greek ships in harbor,

### Book:preventing their forces from escaping to sea. The plan seemed sure, yet

### Book:as Xerxes prepared the invasion, his adviser Artabanus warned his

### Book:master of grave misgivings: “The two mightiest powers in the world are

### Book:against you,” he said. Xerxes laughed—what powers could match his

### Book:gigantic army? “I will tell you what they are,” answered Artabanus. “The

### Book:land and the sea.” There were no safe harbors large enough to receive

### Book:Xerxes’ fleet. And the more land the Persians conquered, and the longer

### Book:their supply lines stretched, the more ruinous the cost of feeding this

### Book:immense army would prove.

### Book:Thinking his adviser a coward, Xerxes proceeded with the invasion.

### Book:Yet as Artabanus predicted, bad weather at sea decimated the Persian

### Book:fleet, which was too large to take shelter in any harbor. On land,

### Book:meanwhile, the Persian army destroyed everything in its path, which

### Book:only made it impossible to feed, since the destruction included crops and

### Book:stores of food. It was also an easy and slow-moving target. The Greeks

### Book:practiced all kinds of deceptive maneuvers to disorient the Persians.

### Book:Xerxes’ eventual defeat at the hands of the Greek allies was an immense

### Book:disaster. The story is emblematic of all those who sacrifice mobility for

### Book:size: The flexible and fleet of foot will almost always win, for they have

### Book:more strategic options. The more gigantic the enemy, the easier it is to

### Book:induce collapse.

### Book:The need for formlessness becomes greater the older we get, as we

### Book:grow more likely to become set in our ways and assume too rigid a form.

### Book:We become predictable, always the first sign of decrepitude. And

### Book:predictability makes us appear comical. Although ridicule and disdain

### Book:might seem mild forms of attack, they are actually potent weapons, and

### Book:will eventually erode a foundation of power. An enemy who does not

### Book:respect you will grow bold, and boldness makes even the smallest animal

### Book:dangerous.The late-eighteenth-century court of France, as exemplified by Marie-

### Book:Antoinette, had become so hopelessly tied to a rigid formality that the

### Book:average Frenchman thought it a silly relic. This depreciation of a

### Book:centuries-old institution was the first sign of a terminal disease, for it

### Book:represented a symbolic loosening of the people’s ties to monarchy. As

### Book:the situation worsened, Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI grew only

### Book:more rigid in their adherence to the past—and quickened their path to the

### Book:guillotine. King Charles I of England reacted similarly to the tide of

### Book:democratic change brewing in England in the 1630s: He disbanded

### Book:Parliament, and his court rituals grew increasingly formal and distant. He

### Book:wanted to return to an older style of ruling, with adherence to all kinds of

### Book:petty protocol. His rigidity only heightened the desire for change. Soon,

### Book:of course, he was swept up in a devastating civil war, and eventually he

### Book:lost his head to the executioner’s axe.

### Book:As you get older, you must rely even less on the past. Be vigilant lest

### Book:the form your character has taken makes you seem a relic. It is not a