I see a bunch of people riffing on how The Art of War is obvious etc etc, but it seems few people keep in mind that this is advice for very powerful people of the time, the kind of guys who would be kicked in the head by a horse every day.
People who understand how power and lack of resources fucks with a person don’t usually get to tell armies to go fight a war, so those who do need to be told by a guy they’d let execute their favorite wife. (Also, probably the whole Seinfeld Is Unfunny trope…)
Today in signs of changing times, “we used to call that a botnet”: https://blog.includesecurity.com/2026/06/the-smart-tv-in-your-livingroom-is-a-node-in-the-aiscraping-economy/