I have heard this term for a plethora number of times as the commentators analyse the games in Starcraft II tournaments.
Recently, I have decided to blog about this topic because I heard this term during the Transformers movie (spoiler alert).
OptimusPrime told Sam that they need to bring an element of surprise to the decepticons.
When he said that, it strikes me immediately, the term "element of surprise" that is.
To me, it is a powerful weapon, and it is most effective when your opponent is completely unprepared for it.
That's the whole point of the element of surprise, to shock your opponent, to maximise the impact of this surprise on your opponent.
In the game Starcraft II, I have seen the Korean Pros doing it time and again. They hide structures and units just to take their opponents by surprise and it works especially well against the higher level professionals.
Why is this so? Well, this is simply because the high level pros will scout the base of their opponents consistently to make sure they know what's going on. Subsequently, they will prepare builds that will counter that specific build their opponents are going.
However, it is because of this over-analysis that caused them to die to surprise attacks.
Reason: They were totally unprepared for it because they prepared for something else, something they had scouted.
In application to the real business world, I feel that the top corporations and banks are actually so well-versed in the industry because they research and anaylse excessively, in hope that they will be able to grasp what's going on.
However, just like the financial crisis, it came as a shock, the collapse of Lehman Brothers. They just were not prepared for it. And the impact of the collapse of Lehman Brother took the world by shock and it almost obliterated the entire banking industry and resulted in collateral damage to other key industries as well.
So the point here is that, the element of surprise can really be powerful, especially at the higher levels where people start to over-analyse.
The moral of the story? Do not over-analyse. Have an open mind, be flexible. It's not easy, but do try okay?
However, if they ask you something completely different or on an entirely off-track topic, you get so caught off-guard that you falter and screw up so badly.
It's like an interview, sometimes you over-prepare and you think that you will be able to tackle any questions that come your way, anything about the company or the industry, no problem for you.
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