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  • JojoWakaki@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    “Confuse yourself to confuse thy enemy.” - Sun Tzu

    More correctly “If you wish to feign confusion in order to lure the enemy on, you must first have perfect discipline; if you wish to display timidity in order to entrap the enemy, you must have extreme courage”

    But the first one is more meme-able than the latter. - Abraham Lincoln

  • plyth@feddit.org
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    10 hours ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory

    Why is this not what is happening? Trump is a reality star. Is he calling the shots or is he handling the masses, both sides, while more knowledgeable people do the actual planning?

    If Trump is that stupid why do the billionaires not finance an impeachment?

  • Triumph@fedia.io
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    23 hours ago

    This can actually be a valid tactic. Poker players, for example, don’t like playing against total novices, because the novice doesn’t play by convention. Makes them truly unpredictable and unreadable.

    • tpyo@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I played blackjack for the first time at a real casino, and I was really upsetting the other table players because I was playing feel. I know it’s different than poker but those players truly feel entitled to the cards you draw

      Like if I hit on something I “shouldn’t” some people would groan and then I’d get glares from the next person down. Granted that may have not been the norm but put me off of table games even those are my favorite

      I still haven’t played poker. I don’t mind playing the house but I’m not confident enough to play against other people

      • Triumph@fedia.io
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        13 hours ago

        People who think that your play at a blackjack table changes anything at all for them are idiots who don’t understand math.

    • 51dusty@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      This was a valid tactic, if not accidental.

      during WW2 Germans and Japanese both said that you could not rely on US soldiers to do things by the book (or the way they had been trained) and had a harder time predicting behavior and movement of smaller groups of troops.

    • F/15/Cali@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      I once watched a 2100 ELO player lose to a 1200 ELO player for this exact reason. The instant I saw the game turn around, I could only pity the advanced player for expecting the novice to predict anything. Afterward, the advanced player was bizarrely shaken by the loss. I wish I had saved the replay.

      The odds of winning between 1200 and 2100 is what, 1/1,000? It felt like seeing a unicorn.

      Edit: 1/179

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        I used to play tournament level chess. I found leaning into this to be quite effective.

        I was never very good with memorising opening gambits. I excelled in the mid and late game however. If I realised (or suspected) my opponent was playing a preplanned gambit, I would make a deliberately suboptimal move or 2. I might lose some positional advantage, or even a pawn or 2. I could generally make it up, once my opponent was kicked off their rails.

      • tpyo@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I had somewhat of the same revelation when I was younger; a few classmates and myself subbed in for a sport we’d never played while the players went on a school trip

        As we learned the traditional plays, I mentioned to my friend we might have an advantage because we had no idea what we were doing so wouldn’t do it “properly” and it might throw off the other team

        It was chaos but my prediction was somewhat correct; coupled with our enthusiasm we did surprisingly well

    • evenglow@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      And that kids was how America got left alone at the table to play checkers with Republicans.

  • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    this is probably apocryphal, but I think I recall hearing about German officers complaining that they went to a lot of trouble to learn about the US army’s official operating procedures, and it didn’t do them any good cause the US never actually followed them

    • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      The only thing that gets damaged when that fat, old, dementia riddled, mushy brained, kiddie fiddling idiot goes off are underpants… when he shits himself.

  • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Untrue, people are predictable and lack of self awareness makes you more vulnerable to being controlled.