Strategy vs. Tactics: Stop Playing Games You Never Chose

I watch people argue about strategy and tactics like they’re interchangeable and they clearly haven’t read Sun Tzu’s Art of War because that’s one of the first lessons you learn. Strategy is what you want to do and tactics is how you get there but more importantly, strategy is choosing what game to play and tactics is playing that game well. The difference matters because most people spend their entire lives getting better at games they never consciously chose to play. This is why it is better to be on offense than defense, offense gets to set the pace of how the conflict is going to go and the defense is stuck playing the game the offense set. This is true in football and true in war.

The Game You Didn’t Choose

Let’s take this into your business or your career. You’ve optimized your LinkedIn profil and perfected the pitch. At work or with clients you’ve mastered the meeting. You learned the tools everyone else is using. That is all tactics and good ones but did you ever stop to ask: Is this the right game for me? A fish can try very hard to climb a tree and take climbing classes but the fish is in the wrong game.

I’ve spent over a decade in commentary and consulting. I’ve watched founders build entire businesses around tactics that serve someone else’s strategy. I’ve seen writers perfect their craft in genres that don’t match their voice or goals. They’re playing well. They’re just playing the wrong game.

Strategy Asks Different Questions

Tactics asks: How do I do this better? Strategy asks: Should I be doing this at all? When I left my MFA program, doors closed. The game I thought I was playing turned out to be someone else’s game entirely. I had to step back and ask: What game do I actually want to play? That’s when The Cameron Journal became real. Not as a tactic to get somewhere else, but as the strategy itself. Suddenly, rather than it being an aspect of my writing, it became a vehicle for my whole business and success.

Most People Never Choose

Game theory, which I’ve recently been into tells us that we inherit various games. We get them from our industry and peer group. Especially when it comes to advice from parents and older colleagues we often hear about the game that worked for someone else ten (or more!) years ago. You can get good at playing them and you might even win. But winning a game you never chose is still a loss. I see this in messaging and thought leadership all the time. Companies optimize their content strategy without ever asking: What conversation do we actually want to be part of? They’re tactical masters in a strategic void. If the current game isn’t where you want to be, the best thing you can do is change the game to something more favorable to your real goal.

The Real Work

Strategy is harder than tactics because it requires honesty. You have to admit when you’re playing someone else’s game. You have to acknowledge that getting better at the wrong thing is still wrong. I’ve been trying to build something less outrage-driven, less tribal, more grounded in the gap between narrative and reality. That’s a strategic choice. The tactics flow from there. Your tactics should serve your strategy. Not the other way around.

Start Here

Ask yourself: What game am I currently playing? Then ask: Did I choose this game, or did it choose me? If you don’t have a clear answer, you’re probably optimizing tactics in a game you never consciously entered. Strategy comes first. Everything else is just moves on a board you didn’t set up.