The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors - New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/science/26tier.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&pagewanted=1
"Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships."