Oakland Raiders Will Exercise the Art of War within NFL Guidelines

Recalling the fine works in military literature can equip the Oakland Raiders to win more games in 2010.

Here are some words of wisdom, translated from The Art of War, a historical document. Where did I learn about this work? It was in the comment strand of one of my articles.

A new state of mind or attitude needs to be developed in the Oakland Raiders. Here is an excerpt:

Verses from the book occur in modern daily Chinese idioms and phrases, such as the last verse of Chapter 3:

故曰:知彼知己,百戰不殆;不知彼而知己,一勝一負;不知彼,不知己,每戰必殆。 So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself. This has been more tersely interpreted and condensed into the modern proverb:

知己知彼,百戰不殆。 If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.  

The Discussion

You may wonder why a female mathematician who loves football and data analysis would write about the art of war. Well, years ago at Polytechnic University, located in Brooklyn, New York, a professor named Larry Narici taught me "Game Theory." The mathematical theories were developed during World War II. It was the mathematics of the art of war.

This course awakened my interest in the logic, mathematics, and psychology of "war games." This awareness went as far back as the Sixties.

When I was studying thes...

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