On the topic of military leaders, what do you think? I'm not against scholar generals..but i tend to think that leadership/military genius are born. When i mean 'born', i certainly don't mean inherited traits or prodigy kind of thing, born as in nurture through unintented experiences, exposure and the very mechnisms of the mind that makes one a leader.

'Made' as in...you are academically very bright (again, not against scholars, just using it as discussion), join school, they can teach you every point or factor just like a science be it maneuvre theory or whatever and expect you to understand and analyse. But the thing is in some way, learning tactics or military theory might not be too good. One becomes too concious because he learned the topic just like a science, textbook-style.

I would think that military strategists are born but leaders are made.

How many could surpass the geniuses of Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi but if you waited around for them to be born you might have to wait forever or they might not even be born here.

But the common trait for these 2 men are that they are also very learned. So the next best thing is to identify those academically bright and train them in the ways of past geniuses with time and experience hopefully they wouldn't fare too badly.

1 cts

It's a cliche. Nobody is born to be anything, less those with natural genetic flaws. It's all in the individual's upbringing and education.