“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” -Sun Tzu
1: To live longer, healthier lives, we must understand the difference between strategy and tactics, Dr. Peter Attia writes in his book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.
To explain the difference, Peter references one of the most celebrated boxing matches of all time: Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman.
Called the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the fight occurred in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974.
Muhammad’s goal was to defeat George and regain his heavyweight title.
His problem?
George was “younger, stronger, meaner, and favored to win in devastating fashion,” Peter writes. At the time, George was not “the jovial guy who sells countertop grills.” Back then, George Foreman “was considered the meanest SOB who ever laced on boxing gloves. He was viewed as literally invincible.”
Boxing experts were convinced Muhammad didn’t have a chance.
Which is why he needed a strategy.
“Ali knew he had certain slight advantages over Foreman in that he was faster, more experienced, and mentally tougher,” Peter notes. “He also knew that Foreman was hotheaded and prone to anger.”
So, rather than try to match George punch for punch, Muhammad decided to wear George out, making him “frustrated and tired, and thus vulnerable,” Peter recalls.
“This was his strategy: make Foreman angry, and then let him flail away until he had exhausted himself and Ali could mount an offensive.”
His chosen tactic? The now famous “rope-a-dope.”
Muhammad “let an enraged Foreman chase him around the ring and press him up against the ropes,” Peter recalls, “wasting energy while Muhammad concentrated on trying to minimize the damage he absorbed.”
In the early rounds, it appeared George was in total command of the fight. “But because Ali’s strategy was to try to outlast Foreman, he had trained himself to endure the abuse,” Peter writes. “By about the fifth round, you can almost see Foreman realizing, Damn, I’m already gassed.
“Meanwhile, Ali’s superior physical conditioning meant he had much more left in the tank. He went on to win the match via a knockout in the eighth round.”
2: When it comes to our health and longevity, we often mistake strategy and tactics.
We seek quick fixes to our health challenges. We “want to take a shortcut, right to the tactics: this is what to eat (and not eat), that is how we should exercise, these are the supplements or medications we need, and so on.”
Instead, to become healthier and live longer, we “first need to have a strategy,” Peter writes.
Tactics are what we do when we are in the ring. Strategy “is the harder part,” Peter notes, “because it requires careful study of one’s opponent, identifying his strengths and weaknesses, and figuring out how to use both to our advantage, well before actually stepping in the ring.”
“Without an understanding of the strategy, and the science that informs it,” Peter writes, “our tactics will not mean much, and we’ll forever ride the merry-go-round of fad diets and trendy workouts and miracle supplements.”
3: Also, unlike Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle, “time is definitely not on our side,” he notes. “Every moment we are alive, our risk of disease and death is tugging at us, the way gravity pulls a long jumper toward earth.”
When a person drops dead of a heart attack, he or she did not get sick an hour earlier. “The disease was working inside them, silently and invisibly, for decades,” Peter writes. “As they grew older, their own internal defense mechanisms weakened and disease gained the upper hand.”
To live longer and better, we must take active preventative measures to combat what Peter calls the “Four Horsemen:” Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurogenerative diseases.
The Horsemen have one decisive risk factor in common: Age. As we grow older, our “risk grows exponentially that one or more of these diseases has begun to take hold in the your body.”
But we are not powerless in this fight. We can adopt strategies to delay or even prevent them entirely.
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Do I have a strategy to improve my health, wellness, and longevity?
Action: Understand the strategies that drive what Peter calls “Medicine 3.0.”