Secret linguistic, nanostructure, & biomaterial strategies

Your new Strategy Toolkit newsletter (January 14, 2026)

(1) When ants need words

The strategy of using language to protect secrecy has a long pedigree. Many strategists are familiar with the use of Navajo by American forces during World War Two. Equally fascinating is the development over centuries in China of nushu, a dialect used by women only, a dialect disappearing from the world. In a patriarchal society, at a time when women were denied education, the written script and song of nushu provided much needed support to users, especially in rural settings.

“Visually it was easy to learn, with each character representing one syllable; but to sing it well (for it was sung rather than spoken) required knowing the local dialect. It was therefore a natural medium for rural women denied education, as they all were until Mao’s time. Young unmarried women especially would meet to sing and sew nushu on fans, handkerchiefs and belts. When a bride left to live in the groom’s house, the “Third Day Books” of commiserations and hopes for her were naturally written in nushu, women to women.”*

* Anonymous, “Obituary: He Yanxin,” The Economist (November 29 2025): 78; https://www.economist.com/obituary/2025/11/27/he-yanxin-was-the-steward-of-a-women-only-language