In warfare, one purpose of using cheng / ch’i is to generate the jerky, abrupt, unexpected and disorienting changes that Boyd called “asymmetric fast transients.” We could generate such an effect, for example, when we spring the ch’i on an opponent whose attention has been captured by the cheng and so believes that he understands the situation. There is a similar-sounding term in business strategy called “market dislocation,” an innovation so profound that it changes the rules of the game in that market segment. The Internet is often cited as such a dislocation, and the theory is that we
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