The 10X Samurai
TLDR; If you haven’t seen 13 Assassins yet, do so.
We watched 13 Assassins last night. At one point, the assassins find themselves facing tremendous odds, outnumbered ten to one.
It seems insurmountable until you realize they only have to kill ten each.
Programmers aren’t samurai, they’re not ninja, and they’re not rockstars, but cultivating skill is universal. There’s a lot to be learned from this movie
- Bad tools can’t suppress skill.
No sword? - use a stick!
No stick? - use a rock!
No rock? - use your fists and feet.
- A flurry of moves can be outweighed by a single well chosen stroke. Watch Kuranaga’s fight scenes. Every swing makes contact so he doesn’t really move. Measure twice and you need cut once.
- Economy of movement is even more important in long, arduous battles. A skilled practitioner knows when to expend and conserve their finite energy.
- The greatest talent is a talent for hard work. Samurai, in this film, were born into the role, but the pawn shops are filled with swords.
- Background doesn’t matter when good samurai are hard to come by
- Numbers can’t overcome skill.
I thought samurai would be fun but you bore me. You’re useless, even more useless in great numbers.
