One of my most critical cvomplaints about the treatment of STRATEGY by our Institutions is that there is no useful definition of the term, nor interest in the derivation of the word . (I've an online website, stratpage.htm.)

Online, I've another website, morfdictpage.htm, noting that the basic unit of language is not the phoneme (letter or sound) but the morpheme, composed of combining of meanngful terms. In the Webster's New Unabridged Dictionary, the word "strategy" is said to mean "generalship", relating to the Greek word, strategos, for "general", which seems to invoke the notion of intuition or "gift". However, the resemblance of the first syllable of this word, "strategy", to the Latin word "stratus" for "extension" suggests the possibility of a rule for extending, as the modern use suggests.

My own definition is the following: strategy involves meeting the enemy on the ground of one's choosing; in general, strategy involves attacking a problem under conditions of one's choosing.

We then can relate this to what is perhaps the greatest epistemic strategy, the one that the Canadian mathematician, Z. A. Melzak, taught us in his book, Bypass, A Simple Approach to Complexity. To solve a given problem:

1. you bypass it
2. by transforming it into a similar problem which you know how to solve;
3. solve the transformed problem;
4. transform the answer back into terms suitable for the original problem.

This is so simple it can be easily diagrammed:

                   bypass difficult or intractable problem
                      -------------------------------->
             transform|                               ^transform
             into a   |                               |answer into
             tractable|                               |form of original
             problem  V------------------------------->problem
                           solve tractable problem

I've compiled a TABLE OF BYPASSES, in math, science, engineering, and daily life. (For example, the bypass labeled "conjugacy" is the primary algorithm for solving problems in quantum theory, which has led to the transistor, the laser, and other devices. Melzak speculates that "Hominid became human by internalizing byupass".

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I'm also concerned that experts and various thinkers do not, on the one hand, relate STRATEGY to the concept of ALGORITHM in mathematics, which activates mathematics, and, on the other hand, to the concept of PROSTHESIS, which all humans need in some form or another. (Civilzation is our primary prosthetic. The dolphin adapts so well to its environment that it has no need of such a prosthetic.) I've also diagrammed this:

                               STRATEGY
                                  /\
                                 /  \
                                /    \
                               /      \
                     ALGORITHM/________\PROSTHESIS

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The ineptness of experts and educators and mediacs in dealing with the notion of STRATEGY is paralleled by an ineptness in dealing with the notion of probability.

1. Do not be guided by the value of probabilities in a given case;
2. rather, be guided by the expectation, which is the probability of an event multiplied by the cost of the event.

For example, statistics may show that the probability of a fire in my neighborhood is very small; but, if it occurred, the loss could be very great (particularly loss of life). On the other hand, the cost of a fire insurance policy as multiplier of the given probability yields an expectation which is less of a loss than that the possible loss with no insurance. So, the best strategy is to ensure.

The example I've often given of ignorance regarding this is the boast of Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the "Vietnam Era", who claimed that victory was certain because South Vietnam had nine times as many soldiers as North Vietnam. But some one retorted, "What if that one Vietcong fights like hell and the South Vietnam soldiers do not?"