Getting More Strategic
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Business Management
Productivity
The article 'Getting More Strategic' discusses the importance of strategy in business and personal productivity, sparking a thoughtful discussion on the distinction between strategy and tactics among HN commenters.
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Sep 23, 2025 at 8:41 AM EDT
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... Is there any aspect of anything business related that isn't contextual? Tactics are even more contextual than strategy. Optimisation is contextual. Programming is contextual. Sales is contextual. Cleaning is contextual, sometimes people leave contextual notes out saying "don't clean this desk".
The big problem with strategy is it is so contextual that you cannot, in fact, write a general article on "Getting More Strategic". Without a specific context to be strategic in, all that is left is a generic call to make good decisions. Which is a nice sentiment, but void of useful meaning. This article doesn't actually say very much, there is a high rate of platitudes because there isn't any context to talk about.
Strategy is how to decide which tactics to use. If your tactics are polished and well done, basic strategy will be enough. If the tactics are sub-par, I recommend a strategy of learning to execute better.
by far the best content on strategy I have read is Peter Compo, a point he repeatedly makes is that the whole execution argument is meaningless without a strategy (and its many tactics, plans, compromises) to execute. So, what are you executing?
If you're in the wrong market or building for the wrong customers you can execute brilliantly on everything you mentioned and it won't matter. The only thing that matters is product market fit or finding it if you don't have it. That's what I see as unsaid in your parent's comment about "execute what though?"
If I'm running a lawn care company in the desert I can get all those annoying details right and still be unsuccessful. So strategy is not opening a lawn care company in the desert.
If you think I'm missing something you are saying, please let me know!
So maybe there's "strategy" on the level of "sell something that non-zero people want", then there's execution on the details, and then a higher level of strategy that's maybe related to fine tuning product market fit, etc. But that feels like a weird discontinuity in "strategy" along the priority axis, and definitely doesn't fit with the conventional tone of "strategic thinking", which is definitely more on the "higher" level end of that spectrum.
Strategy is about choosing how to achieve a goal, all the tactics, fitness measures/metrics, compromises, challenges to overcome but it's also the goal itself. Strategy should guide you, your tactics at play to deliver your ultimate goal. Execution is just doing that stuff hopefully focussing on the stuff that matters most.
I’ve always been a Porter guy when it comes to business strategy though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter's_generic_strategies
> Wisdom is possessing a beyond-expert vocabulary of effective tactics that will work in a given discipline at that time.
Wisdom is the ability to navigate ignorance. Wise people do not fail when they are ignorant, they proceed with humble caution until the unknowable challenges are behind them.
Let me guess, you’re an ESTJ? I know, it isn’t fair, your brain is optimized for literal perception, not to see the world as a framework of principles. Though you generate abstract principles from your experience, so you and the product of your efforts can be appreciated by those who value principles.
Strategy is knowing how to frame and manipulate the rules of “the game”. And tactics are specific applications for exploiting those rules.
One searches for curious truths, and another takes others’ word for it.
And yes, I have spotted fnords, and lived to tell about it.
Was this supposed to make sense?
The funny thing is …
Though a lot of the value of the book is in the examples, so if you like the summary, I'd encourage you to read the whole thing.
You might not be marginalised in the greater business, but for a particular project or strategic issue you might be under-represented.
Loved this line; a good reminder!