Monday, December 7, 2009

Confuse them!


Keep changing your style of doing things. Vary your
methods. This will confuse people, especially your
rivals, and awaken their curiosity and attention.

If you always act on your first intention, others
will foresee it and thwart it. It is easy to kill
the bird that flies in a straight line, but not one
that changes its line of flight.

Don't always act on your second intention either; do
something twice, and others will discover the ruse.
Malice is ready to pounce on you; you need a good
deal of subtlety to outwit it.

The consummate player never moves the piece his
opponent expects him to, and, less still, the piece
he wants him to move.

Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)
_The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647]