“Give your enemy dilemmas, not problems.”

The 33 Strategies of War, Strategy 20, The Ripening-for-the-Sickle Strategy

Most adversaries we encounter—whether in warfare, strategy, politics, or even business—are not fools.

They are often intelligent, adaptive, and capable of solving problems with speed and ingenuity.

If we present them with a straightforward challenge, a single obstacle, or a temporary setback, we can almost guarantee that they will find a way through it.

A problem, by its nature, has a solution—and clever opponents, given time and resources, will usually discover it.

That is why the true strategist aims not merely to give an enemy a problem to solve, but a dilemma to endure.

A dilemma is fundamentally different.