[keiferski]

The opponent part could use one extra point: reduce your opponent’s options to the range you want them to have, not to none at all.

From Sun Tzu, and put into practice frequently by the Mongols:

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.

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

Finally, the demoralized soldiers decided to flee. They tried to escape through a gap left open on purpose by the Mongols, and almost all of them were slaughtered.

[rawgabbit]

Sun Tzu was talking about human psychology not about making a strategic choice.

Sun Tzu was saying it is better to give your enemy the illusion of a path to retreat. If you don’t, the enemy will fight to the death. It is for the same reason why you should treat your prisoners humanely. You want them to surrender and end the fighting as quickly as possible.

Choosing a strategic plan only works if you follow through and execute. What is worse than paralysis by over analysis is a boss who constantly changes strategy. That is a sure path to ruin.

[keiferski]

Not sure how that is a contradiction. My point was that the goal isn’t necessarily to reduce the options the opponent has, because if you remove all options it’s actually not a good move - as the enemy will then fight to the death, literally or metaphorically.