The childhood of the world

The Strategy Toolkit - June 2022 edition

Excerpt:  Strategy and Medicine, part one

In this book, we define strategy to be “the means of surviving and the means of improving one’s life”, or simply what people do to survive, thrive, and get ahead in life.  On the most fundamental human basis, that includes at a minimum staying alive to face another day.  It then follows that strategies for maintaining health, the underlying rationale for the field of medicine, are critical.  As we’ve seen in law, therefore, we are likely to uncover many ideas of interest to strategists by paying close attention to medicine.

            Before medicine as a profession was assumed by the first healers, shamans and apothecaries, everyone lived their lives as guided by family and tribal folklore, in terms of what to eat, what activities to take on, and with whom.  Life was, as Hobbes put it, nasty, brutish, and short.  Threats to longevity, including illness and ageing, were not well understood, and for the longest time addressed through superstition, ritual, and religious beliefs.  When it came to proactive health and wellness, many did nothing, the default strategic option, putting their trust in fate.