March 17, 2005
Elevator Speech v.3
This third version of the elevator speech is getting away from the brevity of the first two version (the three line and the six line).
The Way of Go shows how universal rules of strategy manifest themselves in the game of Go. Not requiring the reader to know anything of Go, The Way of Go introduces the universal rules, their structure (with the acronym GO'S RULES) and shows the power of applying these rules to life (Go, business, war, etc.).
Taking examples from business, sports, politics, and other fields, the Way of Go shows how rules relate across domains and how at their root nature, the "rules" (heurisitics, rules of thumb, axioms, proverbs, etc.) don't differ, that their underlying natures don't change.
While the book could stop there, the title is not GO'S RULES, but the Way of Go. The Way of Go suggests that there is more to life, or this book, than just applying proverbs to situations. Looking deeper at the subject, having the right spirit, and rethinking subjects you already know, the reader is forced to reconsider oftentimes fundamental elements guiding the reader's decision-making routes.
The Way of Go is meant to be read a number of ways. First, you can open it up randomly and find that each paragraph is loaded with meaning(s) and with a little reading, there's more there than meets the eye. Second, you can read it all the way through to understand the structure of these universal rules and see how chapters intertwine. Third, The Way of Go is chock full of double entendres, hidden gems, plays on words, and other things for those who like to read deeply. As one reader said, "A Finnegan's Wake on Strategy"
Posted by wayofgo at 05:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2005
Elevator Speech v.2
People often ask for a quick elevator speech on the Way of Go. What is it? What does it do, in six lines or less. Here goes:
The Way of Go shows how strategy and its principles are universal across domains and that knowing the nature of these principles can help your decision-making process, think of different approaches, and lead to a more sound and complementary understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
Using the game of Go as a metaphor, one branch on the tree of life, if you will, The Way of Go explores truths from Go as it relates to strategy that are likewise true in life. While no Go knowledge is required to understand the applications of Go - or per the above, universal strategic truths - the reader is introduced in a most casual way to the game.
Posted by wayofgo at 06:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 07, 2005
Elevator Speech v.1
People often ask for a quick elevator speech on the Way of Go. What is it? What does it do, in three lines or less. Here goes:
The Way of Go shows how strategy and its principles are universal across domains and that knowing the nature of these principles can help your decision-making process, think of different approaches, and lead to a more sound and complementary understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
Posted by wayofgo at 08:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 15, 2004
The Strategy Rule Book
Strategy is a natural phenomenon. When people compete, make big decisions, or decide to quit something, a little strategy can make the difference between a good choice and a bad choice.
In Go, you learn very early that knowing some rules of thumb can really help your game. Not surprisingly, these same rules of thumb, at an abstract level, also apply in business, politics, sports, martial arts, cooking, war and dating, to mention a few.
The Way of Go provides an organization of these rules so that you can get a complete picture of what's going on strategically. Much of the book is quick to point out that looking at only one side of the proverbial two-sided strategic coin is dangerous business. They are summarized in the acronym: GO'S RULES
G - Global Local
O - Owe Save
S - Slack Taut
R - Reverse Forward
U - Us Them
L - Lead Follow
E - Expand Focus
S - Sorry, there are no rules
Take two common rules: "stay away from strength" and "press the competitor's strength before attacking." Both are valid rules in certain situations, but both are dangerously wrong in others. What the Way of Go suggests you do is look at both sides and then, with your experience, make an educated choice of how best to proceed.
Posted by wayofgo at 11:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 14, 2004
Author at the Virtual Chautauqua
Group Jazz invites you to join us for an upcoming Chautauqua conversation. Chautauqua author sessions open on the 15th and run to the end of the month. September 2004: Troy Anderson on his new book The Way of Go: 8 Ancient Strategy Secrets for Success in Business and Life
Join us to:
* Engage in great conversations.
* Interact with stimulating guest authors, thinkers, and practitioners.
* Enjoy learning with colleagues and friends.
Visit the Chautauqua website, http://www.virtualchautauqua.com, register (free!) and stop by the cafe. Then, come back for Troy Anderson on the 15th!
Posted by wayofgo at 03:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2004
Rules and Rules Part IV
Go's rules are dualistic. Once you know one rule, you can assume that its opposite is lurking. One Go rule is "Don't approach the opponent's strength." Good idea. If a car is coming at you, don't stand in front of it; move aside. If your opponent at the bake-off is really good at muffins and you're not, don't offer a challenge to end the contest by getting into a muffin-baking contest. Just as equity analysts don't offer much advice in sectors they don't cover, and just as lawyers focus on a particular brand of law, you best not try to compete where your opponent is strong.
However, there's also advice to Go players to approach strength!
The technique in Go is called a "lean." You lean on the opponent's strength, making the opponent stronger where the opponent is already strong, then attack the opponent's weakness. Just as you might hit to an opponent's forehand in tennis, the opponent's strength, to set up a shot to the backhand; just as Columbo might ask innocuous questions lulling the questioned into the trap of "just one more question," you can approach the opponent's strength, to get at the opponent's weakness and still be in the right.
Knowing which way to go is a matter of experience. There's no substitute for experience. GO'S RULES (covered in depth in the Way of Go) cannot help you gain it, but they can suggest, if you have the experience, to pay attention to both sides of the strategic coin.
Posted by wayofgo at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2004
Rules and Rules Part III
The Way of Go is partly about the universal rules of thumb -- those maxims, heuristics, proverbs... call it what you will -- that cover the bulk of the strategy in the game of Go and, coincidentally, the rules of life. Bold statement?
The trick, again, is that Go cannot map directly onto the strategy of some other field. You need to look at the "rules" of Go from a standpoint of abstraction. From this standpoint, you can generally say the underlying grit of Go's rules is, in essence, the same underlying grit of baseball, cooking, Chado, archery, war, or your favorite martial art.
With this assumption in hand, you can do a lot. First, you'll find, in the Way of Go, that these underlying truths underlying these rules have a structure. This structure is dualistic in appearance. For every rule there's an antithesis! Just as one can use the rule "absence makes the heart grow fonder," one can also use the rule "out of sight, out of mind."
The key to the application is knowing something of the environment and cirumstances coupled with your own expertise/experience.
Posted by wayofgo at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2004
Rules and Rules Part II
There are two kinds of rules. Rules that govern how play on the Go board goes and rules that dictate better play. Leaving the rules that govern alone, the "rules" (aka: rules of thumb, maxims, proverbs, principles, heuristics, strategies, etc.) of Go share their nature with other fields including, but not limited to, politics, business, war, martial arts, and life.
It's as if there is a tree of life and Go is a branch. At a distance, knowing the Go branch, its shape and relative position to other branches (i.e., "it's a game, like chess"), from the surface, doesn't tell you much about another branch somewhere else on the tree far away. However, if you're able to look at the underlying metaphorical DNA, you can get at something the casual observer of the tree doesn't see. This DNA commonality was readily apparent when I stopped my quest to become a professional Go player and started to do seemingly non-Go things.
My first job, in sales, was full of proverbs. "The customer is always right" and telling clients "don't judge a book by its cover" come to mind. While I hadn't organized all the proverbs I'd learned in Go (c.f., The Way of Go and GO'S RULES for that), I recognized that there was nothing about sales, at its roots, that was different from Go.
One of the more direct applications of Go to sales came when trying to sell the customer our product.
In Go, your opponent can see your every move. To manipulate the board to your favor, your plans must be subtle. An example of how not to be subtle:
(dialing. ring ring) "Hello?"
"Your net profit lessens with every ad you place with other publications. You need to advertise with us if you want to make a buck."
"Hunh? Hello? Who is this!"
While direct and not subversive (unless your lying about your claim), initial situations deserve some crescendo. Here, you go straight for it. As the Pointer Sisters said, "When it comes to love I want a slow hand."
Of course, as in Go, sometimes you have to be quick to the point and can't beat around the bush. While you don't have to be subtle to make your point, you should use the Go rule "press the enemy's strength, then attack." See HOG Heaven in Reverse Forward of the book, for more.
(dialing. ring ring) "Hello?"
"Hi, I am from X. Your product is something our readers (pick one: call us for on a regular basis/use in the field based on surveys we do/match well given your intended target audience). I see you're advertising in A, B, and C, but did you know that you can hit your target audience better in X and probably for half the cost of those other publications for a better sell through?"
As someone who did about 100 cold calls a day and got maybe a sale or two a day, I can vouch that the first example rarely works, if at all. The second approach is kinder, gentler and starts with their product in light of yours.
In Go, you press (aka "lean on") the strength of the opponent, meaning that you make the opponent's strength stronger, then go after a weakness. Just as you may hit to the opponent's strong forehand in tennis, then go for the backhand or, press a witness, as an attorney would, on pleasantries, softening the witness up, getting them comfy, before hitting with a really tough question, you do the same thing in Go and in sales.
Yes, Go is a different branch, but the Way of Go will show you how best to move rules from one branch to another and give you more than fifty Go rules, some of which you can quickly apply to whatever you want to do.
Posted by wayofgo at 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2004
Rules and Rules Part I
There are two kinds of rules you'll find in the Way of Go. First, there are the rules that govern play. "Black plays first, White plays second." "You cannot repeat board positions." And so on. These are not the rules that are the focus of the Way of Go. You can learn something about these rules in another post -- How to Play Go or you can order books on how to play. Since this book is meant for more than just Go players, The Way of Go covers another definition of the term rules.
The Way of Go is concerned with rules of thumb (aka, maxims, principles, heuristics, proverbs) that dictate better play, not how to play legal moves. In sum, The Way of Go uses the term "rules."
What's interesting about the Way of Go is that it takes these rules, which most of us are introduced to in a random, haphazard way, and organizes them in a way that is more telling of their nature. By knowing something of their nature, you can get a better sense of a more complete strategic decision-making picture.
Posted by wayofgo at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Press Release
THE WAY OF GO
8 Ancient Strategy Secrets for Success in Business and Life
(Simon & Schuster’s Free Press; August 16, 2004; $23)
By Troy Anderson
The Way of Go explores the underlying principles of the game of Go and its strategic applications for life. Troy Anderson, former insei (professional-in-training at the Japanese Professional Go Association), senior executive at Red Herring and Industry Standard magazines, and currently knowledge management expert at the Fannie Mae Foundation, shows how strategic types found in Go serve as a model for any strategic situation on the game board or off. Through a blend of engaging stories, enlightening parables, and best practices, Anderson shows how to apply Go’s core strategies to wide-ranging challenges in business, politics, sports, war, martial arts, or most any endeavor requiring strategy.
Selected reviews:
“If you are experienced enough to realize that no person, and certainly no book, will provide simple answers to challenging problems, you will be immediately drawn to this exposition of a refreshingly dynamic approach to evaluating, and devising responses to problems that inevitably present themselves amidst a dearth of information, time, and immediately available resources.” – Chris Kirschner, President, American Go Association, 6-dan
"This book will let loose the floodgates on wei-chi’s strategic depths and frameworks… I have seen almost every kind of strategy book, theory and idea. This book is the real thing… You get to know wei-chi from an expert’s point of view and see how it applies in almost every circumstance in business, sports and life…" – Samuel Lin, Vice Chairman of Greater China, UBS
Posted by wayofgo at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2004
What is the Way of Go?
The Way of Go is a new book from Simon & Schuster.
The following description comes from the book jacket:
“For centuries, business, political, and military leaders throughout Asia have had a secret weapon for success—the philosophies and strategies found in an ancient game called Go. Now, Troy Anderson, an entrepreneur, knowledge management expert, Fortune 500 management consultant, and one of only five Americans to train at the Japanese Professional Go Academy, brings these philosophies and strategies to the West.
Leaders and intellects such as Mao Tse-tung, Bill Gates, and John Nash (the game was featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind) as well as many CEOs and political leaders throughout Asia are among the 27 million people who have played this simple two-person board game known as the "game of geniuses."
In this unique book, Troy Anderson shares the essential elements of strategy and competition that define the game of Go and shows how these principles can be applied wherever strategy is called for:
• How to make use of limited resources and time to produce the largest gain
• Which initiatives to continue and which to abandon
• When to lead and when to follow your opponent
• How to weigh competing interests among different units
• How to enter a market where the competition is already well established
• How to proceed to ensure success if the competition enters your market
• How to create a strategic plan when the market changes quickly
• How to go global but think locally
Go provides experience and understanding regarding basic strategic problems that no other art, science, or field, other than war, can readily claim. In addition to an enriching account of how the game of Go has influenced Anderson's life, the valuable lessons imparted here add up to a powerful prescription for success—whether you are seeking professional achievement, better competitive understanding, or simply a more rewarding life."
Posted by wayofgo at 03:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
Way of Go Book Jacket
Posted by wayofgo at 09:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 12, 2004
The cover of the Way of Go
Posted by wayofgo at 04:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack