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Reader question: What does “take no prisoners” mean, as in: You’ve got to take more of a take-no-prisoners attitude? My comments: Whoever gives you this advice wants you to be more aggressive, more relentless, brutal and merciless when it comes to dealings with your opponents. The so-called “take-no-prisoners” attitude comes from war. A take-no-prisoners approach dictates that soldiers continue to shoot even if enemy troops have raised a white flag, knelt on the floor with both hands above their head. In other words, you want to kill your enemies even if they have surrendered. This phrase is used metaphorically in a lot of lesser situations, too, i.e. in non-life and death situations. For example, if you’re competing with a colleague for the same promotion and you take the “take-no-prisoners” approach, that means you want to do everything you can to beat your colleague. If you’ve made an initial success, you don’t want to relax, either. You want to keep beating your opponent, kicking him when he’s down, to ensure there’s absolutely no chance that he recovers. Ah, well. All of this, by the way, says this, and there’s no two ways about it: War is evil ^_^. Hence, my advice is: Avoid situations where you have to take the “take-no-prisoners” attitude. Avoid them with all your might. Avoid them via understanding that you perhaps don’t have to win in the first place, at least not all the time. | 
