The Sand Pile effect
“Complex behavior in nature,” Bak explained, “reflects the tendency of large systems to evolve into a poised ‘critical’ state, way out of balance, where minor disturbances may lead to events, called avalanches, of all sizes.”
Effects based thinking
If you can understand and master the environment around your enemy, you can indirectly manipulate him, which is far more effective —and inescapable —than trying to persuade or confront him directly. It would be like making it rain on the day someone has a picnic planned instead of trying to talk or argue her out of it. Manipulation of the environment in this way is faster, in a sense, and more reliable than persuasion
The question for Sun Zi was how you might make the outcome of a battle inevitable and avoid collision. It was far better, in this view, to attack your enemy’s strategy instead of his troops. If you could immobilize him at the level of his neural cortex, he would collapse.