In Chapter 8 of 17, public affairs and communications strategist Matt Curtis learns effective political campaign management from Sun Tzu's writings, specifically "Art of War." Tzu advises to engage the enemy with a common maneuver and defeat the enemy with an uncommon manuever. Curtis concentrates on the innovative, looking for unique ways to differentiate his campaign and defeat the opposition. During Austin mayoral candidate Will Wynn's campaign, Curtis implements an alternating publicity campaign using one week of policy followed by one week of fun fluff. Curtis finds these little things, in between the common policy maneuvers, put his campaign over the top.