Clauswitz, The General

The following is a short memoir of the Prussian General Carl von Clauswitz taken from the forward of a non-copyrighted translation of his magnus opus On War. On War continues to be the basis for western military thought and strategy.

General Carl Von Clausewitz, was born at Burg, near Magdeburg, in 1780, and entered the Prussian Army as Fahnenjunker (i.e., ensign) in 1792. He served in the campaigns of 1793-94 on the Rhine, after which he seems to have devoted some time to the study of the scientific branches of his profession. In 1801 he entered the Military School at Berlin, and remained there till 1803. During his residence there he attracted the notice of General Scharnhorst, then at the head of the establishment; and the patronage of this distinguished officer had immense influence on his future career, and we may gather from his writings that he ever afterwards continued to entertain a high esteem for Scharnhorst. In the campaign of 1806 he served as Aide-de-camp to Prince Augustus of Prussia; and being wounded and taken prisoner, he was sent into France until the close of that war. On his return, he was placed on General Scharnhorst’s Staff, and employed in the work then going on for the reorganisation of the Army. He was also at this time selected as military instructor to the late King of Prussia, then Crown Prince. In 1812 Clausewitz, with several other Prussian officers, having entered the Russian service, his first appointment was as Aide-de-camp to General Phul. Afterwards, while serving with Wittgenstein’s army, he assisted in negotiating the famous convention of Tauroggen with York. Of the part he took in that affair he has left an interesting account in his work on the “Russian Campaign.” It is there stated that, in order to bring the correspondence which had been carried on with York to a termination in one way or another, the Author was despatched to York’s headquarters with two letters, one was from General d'Auvray, the Chief of the Staff of Wittgenstein’s army, to General Diebitsch, showing the arrangements made to cut off York’s corps from Macdonald (this was necessary in order to give York a plausible excuse for seceding from the French); the other was an intercepted letter from Macdonald to the Duke of Bassano. With regard to the former of these, the Author says, “it would not have had weight with a man like York, but for a military justification, if the Prussian Court should require one as against the French, it was important.”

The second letter was calculated at the least to call up in General York’s mind all the feelings of bitterness which perhaps for some days past bad been diminished by the consciousness of his own behaviour towards the writer.

As the Author entered General York’s chamber, the latter called out to him, “Keep off from me; I will have nothing more to do with you; your d----d Cossacks have let a letter of Macdonald’s pass through them, which brings me an order to march on Piktrepohnen, in order there to effect our junction. All doubt is now at an end; your troops do not come up; you are too weak; march I must, and I must excuse myself from further negotiation, which may cost me my head.” The Author said that be would make no opposition to all this, but begged for a candle, as he had letters to show the General, and, as the latter seemed still to hesitate, the Author added, “Your Excellency will not surely place me in the embarrassment of departing without having executed my commission.” The General ordered candles, and called in Colonel von Roeder, the chief of his staff, from the ante-chamber. The letters were read. After a pause of an instant, the General said, “Clausewitz, you are a Prussian, do you believe that the letter of General d'Auvray is sincere, and that Wittgenstein’s troops will really be at the points he mentioned on the 31st?” The Author replied, “I pledge myself for the sincerity of this letter upon the knowledge I have of General d'Auvray and the other men of Wittgenstein’s headquarters; whether the dispositions he announces can be accomplished as he lays down I certainly cannot pledge myself; for your Excellency knows that in war we must often fall short of the line we have drawn for ourselves.” The General was silent for a few minutes of earnest reflection; then he held out his hand to the Author, and said, “You have me. Tell General Diebitsch that we must confer early to-morrow at the mill of Poschenen, and that I am now firmly determined to separate myself from the French and their cause.” The hour was fixed for 8 A.M. After this was settled, the General added, “But I will not do the thing by halves, I will get you Massenbach also.” He called in an officer who was of Massenbach’s cavalry, and who had just left them. Much like Schiller’s Wallenstein, he asked, walking up and down the room the while, “What say your regiments?” The officer broke out with enthusiasm at the idea of a riddance from the French alliance, and said that every man of the troops in question felt the same.

“You young ones may talk; but my older head is shaking on my shoulders,” replied the General. ["Campaign in Russia in 1812”; translated from the German of General Von Clausewitz – by Lord Ellesmere].

After the close of the Russian campaign Clausewitz remained in the service of that country, but was attached as a Russian staff officer to Blucher’s headquarters till the Armistice in 1813.

In 1814, he became Chief of the Staff of General Walmoden’s Russo-German Corps, which formed part of the Army of the North under Bernadotte. His name is frequently mentioned with distinction in that campaign, particularly in connection with the affair of Goehrde.

Clausewitz re-entered the Prussian service in 1815, and served as Chief of the Staff to Thielman’s corps, which was engaged with Grouchy at Wavre, on the 18th of June.

After the Peace, he was employed in a command on the Rhine. In 1818, he became Major-General, and Director of the Military School at which he had been previously educated.

In 1830, he was appointed Inspector of Artillery at Breslau, but soon after nominated Chief of the Staff to the Army of Observation, under Marshal Gneisenau on the Polish frontier.

The latest notices of his life and services are probably to be found in the memoirs of General Brandt, who, from being on the staff of Gneisenau’s army, was brought into daily intercourse with Clausewitz in matters of duty, and also frequently met him at the table of Marshal Gneisenau, at Posen.

Amongst other anecdotes, General Brandt relates that, upon one occasion, the conversation at the Marshal’s table turned upon a sermon preached by a priest, in which some great absurdities were introduced, and a discussion arose as to whether the Bishop should not be made responsible for what the priest had said. This led to the topic of theology in general, when General Brandt, speaking of himself, says, “I expressed an opinion that theology is only to be regarded as an historical process, as a MOMENT in the gradual development of the human race. This brought upon me an attack from all quarters, but more especially from Clausewitz, who ought to have been on my side, he having been an adherent and pupil of Kiesewetter’s, who had indoctrinated him in the philosophy of Kant, certainly diluted--I might even say in homoeopathic doses.” This anecdote is only interesting as the mention of Kiesewetter points to a circumstance in the life of Clausewitz that may have had an influence in forming those habits of thought which distinguish his writings.

“The way,” says General Brandt, “in which General Clausewitz judged of things, drew conclusions from movements and marches, calculated the times of the marches, and the points where decisions would take place, was extremely interesting. Fate has unfortunately denied him an opportunity of showing his talents in high command, but I have a firm persuasion that as a strategist he would have greatly distinguished himself. As a leader on the field of battle, on the other hand, he would not have been so much in his right place, from a manque d'habitude du commandement, he wanted the art d'enlever les troupes.”

After the Prussian Army of Observation was dissolved, Clausewitz returned to Breslau, and a few days after his arrival was seized with cholera, the seeds of which he must have brought with him from the army on the Polish frontier. His death took place in November 1831.

His writings are contained in nine volumes, published after his death, but his fame rests most upon the three volumes forming his treatise on War. In the present attempt to render into English this portion of the works of Clausewitz, the translator is sensible of many deficiencies, but he hopes at all events to succeed in making this celebrated treatise better known in England, believing, as he does, that so far as the work concerns the interests of this country, it has lost none of the importance it possessed at the time of its first publication.

Monkey Mondays: Monkey Picks Locks. Monkey Escapes. Again

Yep.

Where there's a monkey with a will, there's a monkey who will find a way.

Shaking Things Up

Instead of a normal post today, I decided to “shake things up” a little and just point you, the faithful readers of this blog, to a couple other things that have caught my interest in the past week:

Solving a Rubik’s Cube in 26 Steps

The Cure for Fear

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature

“There are lies…”

Lies

“Tell an untruth; pretend with intent to deceive.” A popular television series, which I like to watch when I can, House, MD, has a lead character—Dr. Gregory House—who believes that everyone lies. Why do people lie to one another? Wikipedia, home to the collaborative intellectual knowledge of the masses, states that lies are told because people have the “intention to deceive, maintain a secret or reputation, or to avoid punishment.” As a whole, people want to be perceived in a certain way: Strong, powerful, helpful, kind, etc. They also want to keep portions of their life that they intentionally keep hidden from the world in that persistent state. Lastly, people generally seek pleasure and avoid pain. While punishment runs the gamut from the type of discipline that a parent gives to a child, it could also mean the shame given to a person from a societal perspective for doing things that are against the norm or outside other acceptable boundaries.

With the exception of psychopathic personality types, however, most people aren’t serial liars. Any poker player will tell you that each person has their “tells.” Any individual that is familiar with the operation of a lie detector understands the mechanics of the human body when they tell something that they know to be a mistruth. People who deal with other people enough has the experience to tell you what to look for in what a person says and does in regards to truths and lies.

Damned Lies

The thing to look out for here is the individual who doesn’t know that they are lying. While lying is mostly a matter of intent, it could also be considered a tool of the manipulative in order to gain control over the situation. In this respect, serial liars can take advantage situations by not being able to tell the difference between what a factual reality is and what things are fabricated. They will not have the “tells” of a person who feels guilty for their actions because they do not have the capacity to feel guilt for their transgressions.

Statistics

Believe it or not, everyone has an agenda. Some might be simple enough: Get through my day and get home so I can relax. Others might be more insidious: Take over the world. Most fall in between. At any rate anyone may use statistics to get their point across, draw someone to action, and control their environment towards the outcome which they desire. Take, for instance, this insurance scenario:

“Suppose that a zealous insurance CEO asks his statistician if drivers with two or more tickets in a three-year period were more likely to have an accident.[1] He would soon report back that drivers with two or more tickets have almost twice [2] the chance of having an accident.

Wow! Twice the accident rate! What fools! The CEO might think that by hitting these guys with higher premiums, he might make them think about their careless driving habits. Maybe it will teach them a lesson. The company can make quite a bit more profit, as other insurers are not going to try and steal the worst drivers away. Furthermore, the state motor vehicle departments start thinking about taking away these driver's licenses. Everybody thinks that these guys have to be gotten off the road before they kill themselves or someone else. Unfortunately, they aren't careless drivers. According to the assumptions, they are equally good at driving as everybody else. The statistics lied. The difference in mileage exposure alone is enough to produce a strong correlation between tickets and accidents.”

While tickets isn’t, in and of itself, a contributable factor inasmuch as it indicates the entire risk that any one client is going to be for an insurance company if this were something that were correlated to the distance that a person drives in any given year, it may then gain more credibility. All things being equal, consider the case between the younger man and the older woman. Maybe the younger man doesn’t want to put down that he drives twice the norm in a given year—30,000 miles—while the older lady decides that she doesn’t want to let the insurance company know that she only drives a couple thousand miles each year. Either way, these individuals are likely to let the insurance company know something different about their driving habits either through inflating or deflating their numbers, respectively.

And the Truth…

In the end it is a good idea to remember that the human instinct is correct a good majority of the time, at least for those things within our own purview. Experts may be able to pull out statistics and serial liars may be able to influence your actions with their finely-honed skills, and everyday people might baffle you will bull…but in the end just make sure to do your research and trust your own gut.

The Emergence of Context

Try to get a kid to eat their green vegetables. Being the rational adult that we are we attempt explaining to the youth why eating their vegetables, drinking their milk, not doing drugs or smoking, or staying in school are such good things to do because they all factor into the context of how their future will play out. Don’t stay in school, for instance, and you will have limitations placed onto your for how you to succeed in the world; do drugs and things get worse. Life is tough enough; it only gets worse when someone stacks the odds against themselves.

A recent study of the brains of children shows a stark contrast in the biology—and through that, its mechanics—between the younger brain, the older brain, and the points in between. While the human brain physically grows to full size (but not volume) by the time a person is six years old, it does not finish developing until early adulthood. The examples of context and long-term thinking show that children are not apt to have the mental traits of grown-ups. They may not be able to recall context with such great ease, but they do have the ability to recall discrete facts with better ease.

Gray matter grows, flourishes, and neurons—brain cells—develop sheaths of fatty materials on their ends as the brain matures. This biological process forms the basis for growing from individuals of finite facts to people of great associations of context:

“But as people grow, their brains change. Before full volume is attained, the pruning starts. Grey matter gets picked away at different rates in different parts of the organ. Brain cells form white matter as their arms become covered in fatty sheaths that, like the plastic insulation around a metal wire, stop electrical signals leaking out as they zip along the nerve cells. As the grey matter diminishes, the white matter steadily increases. Which is why the brain can mature from an organ of overwhelmingly short-range connections into one with many long-distance links, as Bradley Schlaggar and his colleagues at Washington University, in St Louis, have found.”

Essentially, this process creates the basis for two separate networks—instead of two physical parts of the brain—which develop to be able to simultaneously work out the challenges we face in our everyday lives. Through the use of a technique called graph theory—a versatile tool to measure everything from neural activity to power grid usage—researchers were able to map with some success how these networks act on their own and in coordination with one another. It also offers insight to the notion that adults can better resist impulses in order to focus on long-term goals.

In the end, however, all this winds up summarizing a conclusion that has been in the annals of wisdom for quite some time: The brain is a muscle, like any other. While it will grow and mature over time, how we use it over any given time will help to develop it—or foment an environment in which it is less likely to develop—no matter which decade of age in which we find ourselves.

Sun Tzu on Corporate Warfare: The Basics

Corporate warfare is the only means of growth for a firm.

There are Five Primary Factors in waging corporate warfare:

1. Corporate Culture is what causes the people to have the same thinking as their superiors.

§ The corporate leader is simply doing the will of the customer, as if he or she and they are the same entity.

§ There must be no fear of danger and betrayal by or from either the corporate officer, management or non-management employee

2. “Heaven” is the natural, uncontrollable forces related to the markets and it’s inherent segments, which may place constraints on operations

§ Traveling on a safe and easy route, as pertaining to the market environments

§ Must be flexible and able to adapt to sudden changes in environmental variables in the markets

§ Resources must be adequate to support a campaign under adverse variables

§ Support from staff elements must be effective and immediate

§ The leader must be well-trained and well-experienced to meet the needs of an ever-changing marketplace

§ There must be at least one strong leader in every business unit to urge and motivate their colleagues along

3. “Ground” is the natural, uncontrollable forces related to the industrial environment and other elements which may place constraints on operations

§ Traveling on a safe and easy route, as pertaining to the industrial environment

§ Must be flexible and able to adapt to sudden changes in environmental variables in the industry

§ Supplies and equipment need to be adequate.

§ The officers, managerial, and non-managerial employees must be well-trained to handle fluctuations in variables in the industrial environment

§ There must be at least one strong leader in every business unit to urge and motivate their colleagues along

4. The Corporate Leader displays the necessary traits of wisdom, credibility, benevolence, courage, and discipline.

§ Wisdom is the quality of being able to make sound, logical decisions; perfected through years of study and experience.

§ Credibility is being able to gain the trust of others through dependable and consistent demeanor; as a leader’s word carries much weight and it makes for an easier task of rallying those subordinate to the Corporate Leader

§ Benevolence is the intentions of the corporate leader always being focused on doing things beneficial for his or her subordinates, the firm, and utmost—the customer. The corporate leader must not have concern for himself or herself, but he or she must be without bias and malice in their decisions and actions.

§ Courage is a necessary trait for a truly effective corporate leader. The courageousness of a leader reflects in where he is on the corporate battlefield, how he or she guides and motivates the subordinates.

§ Discipline prevents him from growing soft. Even at rest, the good corporate leader is always alert. The corporate leader should instill high standards in himself or herself as well as in their subordinates, both management and non-management. Low standards will cause a loss of a sense of urgency, and therefore overall readiness. “Laxness begets defeat.”

5. “Law,” or policy, procedures, rules, regulations, and the like are the controls that hold all of the other four elements together. It is the amount of organization, or housekeeping, the communications structure, the chain of command, and level of logistics and other support.

§ Free of clutter

§ Good communication, backed by strong communication channels

§ Urgency in amount of support and support structure

§ Control of expenses

§ Without an efficient system of moving essentials, the army will be weakened.

§ Effective management of other resources

§ The wise corporate leader considers the costs of doing battle closely, spending money and consuming resources like they were his or her own

§ Supplies should be replenished from the opponent’s provisions whenever possible

Every corporate officer, senior, middle, and supervisory manager must know and be able to apply these concepts, for they are supremely necessary in succeeding in any corporate campaign.

• Knowing and being able to apply these elements lessens the risk to valuable resources, personnel, capital, and the image of the firm.
• There is no substitute for a well-planned operation
• There exists a critical importance in training and educating members of management at all levels.
• Training and education were highly valued.
• One does not attain the position as a corporate officer without possessing acute awareness of the principles of business, industry, and warfare.
• One common cross-cultural denominator is that successful leaders and successful business units are fanatical about training their employees.

Be able to compare, contrast, and calculate these Five Principles against any and all organizations/firms involved in any campaign of corporate warfare.

• Must be unbiased
• Must be able to solve or otherwise adapt to any shortcomings that are found
• Be able to adjust the strategic elements so that they fall in your favor
• If the corporate leader knows the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent, then he or she can attack with great speed, and defend with great mystery.
• Calculating requires quantitative methods
• Contrasting requires qualitative methods

The corporate officer or manager who does not properly practice corporate warfare should be terminated from the firm, for they do not understand the way of corporate warfare. Ignoring them will prove detrimental to the operation. Given the choice between a corporate officer who practices tried-and-true concepts in warfare versus one who does not, a good human resources manager or manager closely involved with hiring should not hire the haphazard one, but the one who sees the full value of planning, purpose, strategy, and tactics.

Intelligence Types in Corporate Warfare

There are primarily five intelligence disciplines which significantly support corporate operations:

Human Intelligence (HUMINT)

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)

Technical Intelligence (TECHINT)

Image Intelligence (IMINT)

Communications Intelligence (CI)

Human Intelligence (HUMINT)

The objective of most corporate campaigns, highlighting specifically the areas of marketing, advertising, selling, legal, mergers and acquisitions, and other key areas where the intent is to influence humans with a specific level of buy-in.

The most effective source of intelligence gathering is Human Intelligence.

Human Intelligence can be collected using a variety of methods.

§ Survey persons in the target market or industrial segment and debrief those persons who have recently had interpersonal contact with either. refugees.

§ Debrief new employees who are or formerly have been part of the target market.

§ Perform controlled collection.

§ Intelligence gathering by observation

§ Form strategic alliances with those individuals and organizations inside the target market, industry, or sector of industry along with members of the local population, obtaining intelligence information from any number of groups friendly to the corporation.

Corporate-based psychological warfare and other highly-controlled forces originating from the vision of corporate senior management utilize Human Intelligence developed from primary sources such as from controlled collection, Communications Intelligence, surveys as described above, debriefings as described before, and from other defensive or offensive Human Intelligence corporate warfare operations. To support these activities, Human Intelligence must be timely and accurate.

Intelligence information gathered from individuals or business units within a rival company, industry, or that hold key positions in the target market often provide intelligence-gathering business units with significant insights into the psychological situation within one of these specific areas or other target group. Under the proper circumstances, these individuals can also be used to develop products that can later be used in psychological operations. They can also be extremely valuable in testing, pre-testing, or post-testing said products.

Signal Intelligence (SIGINT)

Signals Intelligence is developed from the collection, evaluation, analysis, integration, and interpretation of information derived from intercepted electromagnetic emissions. Signals Intelligence sub-fields include Communications Intelligence (COMINT) and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT). By integrating these forms of intelligence with intelligence from other resources, accurate targeting and threat data can be obtained and realized.

Signals Intelligence data supports psychological operations by providing products extracted from locating, monitoring, and transcribing threat communications and by intercepting non-communications releasers. These assets provide information and intelligence that help reveal activities or plans of opposing forces so that psychological operations can assist the corporate leader in developing effective countermeasures.

Image Intelligence (IMINT)

Image Intelligence comes from radar, photographic, infrared, and electro-optic imagery.

Psychological warfare analysts use Image Intelligence in varied ways. It helps locate and determine the capabilities and operational status of geographic locations of assets that the opposition has that may be a threat within a target geographic area or demographic.

By analyzing imagery of the spatial location and architecture of key structures, Imagery intelligence analysts can determine the ethnic or religious composition of a town or village. Other uses for Imagery Intelligence products include identifying and evaluating operational capabilities of transportation and/or logistics networks, factories, and other rival structures or systems.

Imagery Intelligence analysts use Image Intelligence to confirm or deny acts of acts of sabotage, demonstrations, and work slow-downs that are either the original PSYOP objective or an impact indicator of a PSYOP campaign or specific product.

Technical Intelligence (TECHINT)

Technical Intelligence consists of comparing Scientific and Technical Intelligence and battlefield TECHINT. Technical Intelligence provides business unit personnel with intelligence about other business unit or corporate technological developments and the performance and operational capabilities of business unit or corporate technological materiel. Corporate battlefield TECHINT can provide the tactical-level corporate leader with countermeasures to neutralize and defeat rival systems and materiel. Furthermore, in-depth Technical Intelligence can assist corporate leaders at levels higher than tactical in formulating business unit or tactical strategy.

Psychological operations-involved business units can use Technical Intelligence to focus their efforts on critical, highly technical threat business units.

Counter Intelligence (CI)

Counter Intelligence detects, evaluates, counteracts, or prevents the intelligence collection, subversion, sabotage, and terrorism of rival corporations, business units, or other entities. It determines security vulnerabilities and recommends countermeasures. Counter Intelligence operations support operational security, deception, and business unit protection.

Monkey Mondays: The Monkey and the Taco

Like Monkeys? Of course! Like Tacos?

Whiplash the Monkey...with tacos!

Decision Making: An Overview

It has been said that our destiny is not shaped by how our circumstances mold us, but by the decisions that we make to mold our circumstances. This, I have some level of certainty, is the basis for “there are [insert number here] of kinds of people in this world” pearls of wisdom. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, driven by information, and forged by the decision-making process. As Newton once postulated, every action has an opposite but equal reaction. When you exert force onto something, that object will push back with the same amount of force, per inertia, with the excess energy that you put into the system being used to propel the object onto the trajectory that you want it to move.

In a manner of speaking, you live in an open system: You are part of a community, a larger whole, following your world-line throughout a daily routine, interacting with the world based on your innermost values and behaviors. Behaviors are extensions of values, by way of self-discipline—selective training of thoughts, words, and actions. Self discipline is a deliberate set of actions that can have linear and non-linear payoffs; one’s personal investment in self-discipline, however, is much less than the price of not having self-discipline in many circumstances.

The opposite of self-discipline, by contrast, is impulse. If rational decisions are to be strived for, decisions made impulsively are the introduction of chaos into the decision making process, enough to make them an irrational behavior. Irrational behaviors often add unnecessary entropy to a system—read, your world—and thus form the other end of the continuum from disciplined decision making as a rational, intelligent and deliberate act to the other end of being impulsive, often irrational, and lacking distinct and quality information to justify the action with.

This power of choice and free will, coupled with the other assets provided by the human mind makes it the most powerful tool in the universe. The most important thing that we can do with our minds is to make calculated and rational decision with it. There was once someone who said that the secret to engineering is not asking what more you can add to something, but that there is nothing left to take away. We can draw from this that the best decisions are made deliberately with quality information, but not too much of it. I get ahead of myself, though: Let’s re-visit this point later.

Back to the continuum for a moment: Oftentimes the most calculated of decisions can take the most time, as copious amounts of information are required for it; on the other hand, we often have very little (if any) information to support the decision that we have made, making rationality a function of the amount of information involved, right? Not necessarily. The quality of the information, along with the quantity, comprise a crucial factor in the decision making process. Oftentimes make what they feel are the best decisions, based on a good amount of information…but they are basing decisions on bad information. The cause for this can range from personal biases to disinformation.

So, to the previous point: When are the best decisions made? Bayes Theorem is a mathematical powerhouse of a formula which introduces the concept into the decision making process of re-evaluation once there is a change of the amount of information in the decision-making process. The best decisions don’t rely on the quantity of information, but the quality. While it is unlikely that a single bit of intelligence…information, as it were, could offer you the necessary impetus for you to make a decision, it’s just as possible as receiving far too much information on your required decision and thus having your judgment be clouded with too much information.

How do we attain this elegance in decision making abilities? Understanding the decision making process and experience are the best guides in this: Understanding the process allows one to comprehend the proper framework for which sound decisions are made, while experience develops what is better known as instincts. Instincts are simply our visceral reaction to data that we have seen in the past. In the hands of the logical minded person, proper instincts paired with the application of the never-ending cycle of processing decisions, achieving consistent elegant decision making will only take a matter of time.

You 2.0

You 2.0 Article from Psychology Today.

Why be yourself today when you can be the you of tomorrow.

Combat Leader's Guide to Decision-Making, Part 1

“Warfare is a great matter to a nation; it is the ground of death and of life; it is the way of survival and of destruction, and must be examined.”
—Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

In combat and business, there are many roles filled by many people: They range from the soldier on the front line conducting a series of drills on the frontlines of combat up through the chain of command. Just as the infantry is the branch of the Army that produces the result of liberating land from the enemy, just are those that produce for the organizations which we want to succeed. Staff positions and aides can be found at all levels, also, but ultimately all answer to the business leader that commands all of these assets.

This business leader, or commander, does more than just manage and lead. Whereas managing is the art of conducting and directing resources, leading involves influencing and directing the performance of group members towards the achievement of organizational goals. However, all of these are driven by his or her ability to make decisions. This can often be a monumental task, even for the most experienced leader.

Intelligence

Intelligence drives forces on the battlefield of business—industries, markets, etc. It tells you where your resources are needed and in which amounts.

All probable battlefields on which you could do battle with your opponent and their respective maneuver areas are considered to be part of the battlespace. This battlespace is a two-dimensional, multi-faceted environment with very specific geometries about it. The role of intelligence in the battlespace is to give depth of data for each portion of the battlespace: The more data in a given portion of the battlespace allows for greater opportunity for success in it: Success being defined as a function of opportunity meeting preparation.

Women and the Psychology of the Lie

Recently, 5,000 British women were questioned about their behaviors regarding lying to others. Ninety-six percent of them, or about 4,600 of them, admitted to lying. There were several interesting results that came from the survey, offering some keen insights into the psychology of women and why they lie.

Let’s start with one that is a shocker: Thirty-three percent of women would stay with their husband if they discovered that he was secretly a transvestite. By comparison, seventeen percent would tolerate him if their husbands refused to wash.

What is the reason? I pose that the predominant mentality of those surveyed sought personal harmony through harmony in the environment around them. While it could seem a controversial thesis at first, let’s continue to take a look at some of the other findings starting with the 45 percent of women surveyed that admitted to telling “little white lies” on a daily basis.

A quick web search shows the definition of a “white lie” as one characterized as an “often trivial, diplomatic or well-intentioned untruth.” Going on to say that, “however, the ethical ramifications of being in conflict with an otherwise consistent personal moral theory are far reaching and often involve self-deception.” While the white lie is the most common amongst this demographic, 83 percent of women surveyed in The National Scruples and Lies Survey said that they had told a large-scale, life-changing sort of lie at least once; about one in ten women, or 13 percent, admit to doing so on a regular basis.

What sorts of things can a woman say to make her environment a more harmonious place, though? About 1 in 4 women (27 percent) would tell a man if he was “hopeless in bed,” while a bit more than a third (36 percent) would tell their friends about his performance in the sack. More than half, or 54 percent, wouldn’t tell a man he was fat if asked—the remaining 46 percent would tell him the brutal truth. In contrast, they will expect the brutal truth in return: More than 6 in 10 (61 percent) want you to tell them the brutally honest truth, no matter how fat she looks in those pants.

Who is she most apt to be lied to?

“Partners (70%) are most likely to be lied to by women, with friends (65%), parents (64%), customers and clients (58%) and bosses (57%) also being deceived.”

The top fibs? “No, you don’t look fat,” or lying about shoes.

This only is the tip of the iceberg, though, when it comes to the depth that women will lie to get what they want. If they’re married and have acquired a sexually transmitted disease, 59 percent of women would tell their partners and future partners about it. If they were single, this number nearly flips: Sixty-five percent would not tell partners about it. Once they’re married, about 4 in 10 women—42 percent—would lie about contraception in hopes of getting pregnant, regardless of input from their partner. Once pregnant, if the child was not his and she wanted to stay with him—there is a 1 in 2 chance that she would not tell their significant other.

What these numbers really show is something that psychologists, and anyone with some life experience, has known all along: While men are often competitive and overtly approach things to be overcome, women have a propensity to be more secretive and covert about their competitive nature and wily about accomplishing their personal ambitions. Whereas the classic man is likely to confront someone else, by the time the woman confronts another person, it is often too late.

One could go into an examination of how this has evolved into modern culture from how girls, young ladies, and women were brought up in centuries past, but the cynic in me is likely to boil the matter down to a piece of wisdom from a wonderful poster.

Potpourri: A Couple Current Relevant New Stories

Today I thought I would share some news items currently filling up my “Blog Content” bookmarks folder in Firefox. Aside from the news, I might just have a perspective or other opinion to offer on the matter. Read on to find out!

Australian Survey Shows That Men Are Happiest With Educated Wives

From a survey reported in the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

“Every extra year of education a wife has under her belt significantly increases the chances her husband will report being highly satisfied with life. But Shane Mathew Worner, of the Australian National University’s economics program, says it may be that an educated woman’s earning power is her biggest asset.”

This only goes to reinforce a point that I’ve been making for years regarding men and women: Men—you don’t necessarily want to marry the hot girl that doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about. Sooner or later any novelty or benefit of her “hotness” will wear off. When you get past that, you may want to carry on a civilized conversation about something, I don’t know, educated. While you can certainly set your sights on the beautiful woman in the room, it might be wise to make sure that she hasn’t checked her gray matter at the door.

Why Slim People Dislike the Overweight

This is an interesting one from the University of British Columbia:

“Antipathy toward obese people is a powerful and pervasive prejudice in many contemporary populations. Our results reveal, for the first time, that this prejudice may be rooted in multiple, independent mechanisms. They provide the first evidence that obesity serves as a cue for pathogen infection.”

And the reaction from one half of the “Two Fat Ladies,” show that aired in the late 1990s on BBC and the Food Network, Clarissa Dickson Wright:

“In the 1960s there were a lot of bigoted people who were anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-everything but when they couldn't get away with that any more they turned into food-Nazis instead and began attacking people who were fat.”

People tend to take on the traits and habits with those which they socialize. Does it really matter if it is a behavioral or biochemical matter?

Monkey Mondays: Want Your Monkey Back? Sue!

No monkey left behind!

People Mechanics – Conclusion

Skipping directly from expecting your order to angry takes little energy and can couple the feelings which you’re presenting to those that witness your anger. The emotion that is going to be coupled with this dilemma is probably not going to be the one you want to have them take away about you. However, taking a deep breath and exerting a bit of energy into the situation will not only increase the quality for that interaction, but could also have spillover effects such that the order taker may be less likely to make such a mistake in the future.

Your power, therefore, is represented by your knowledge, skills, and abilities in relation to your environment. Recently decide that you like skim milk over two percent? It is likely inside your scope of influence, inside your power, to stop purchasing two percent milk for the lesser fat variety. Are you unhappy with a municipal ordinance that your town or city just passed? It could very well be within your power to get elected to your local governing body, increase your scope of influence by various means, and change the law.

I can’t emphasize it enough: Find ways to assimilate new knowledge, new data, into the context of your life and it will be more effective for you.

Think Macguyver: The guy that can take a set of seemingly mundane parts from a variety of sources that, in and of themselves, wouldn’t be able to accomplish a task outside of their primary area of expertise and make them into extraordinary devices: Take, for instance, when he disarms a bomb with hockey tickets or starts the truck in a recent commercial with a pocketful of things that he purchased at a local store, including a tube sock, a rubber band, and a tool to baste a turkey with.

People Mechanics – Part 3

The Second Law of Thermodynamics: In a closed system, unless energy is added to it, the amount of chaos will increase and eventually take over the system.

In this context, when I think energy, I think power. What do you want to do today? If you are a “blissfully ignorant” person, how much energy will you need to exert in order to accomplish said task? The larger the task and the less energy you have to devote to it, the more time it will take to apply the proper amount of energy to the task at hand.

Now, I’m using metaphors: Your competencies or talents; skills; level of awareness of yourself, your surroundings, and of others; those things that give you a unique differential advantage when compared to others in your environment. This is your power, this is from where your energy exudes. Power can simply mean commanding respect when you walk into a room. It can mean being able to reconcile an account better than anyone else. It can mean having the necessary components in yourself and your life to go into business.

Take, for example, a guy that works in construction. After a while he grows unhappy with his construction job and wants something in more of an office environment. Maybe only a college class or two in his personal portfolio but a high level of desire to see to the satisfaction of meeting his goal of getting out of construction and into an office: He plans, prepares, and produces. Plan how to get from where you are now to where you want to be: Have a goal in mind and plan with that end in mind. Prepare yourself to meet this goal. Produce the results necessary.

In physics there are two kinds of energy: Potential and kinetic. If kinetic energy is the energy of motion, then potential energy is the energy that might be there but hasn’t been realized yet. Traits such as desire and motivation are potential energy: The planning and preparation stages are when this potential energy begins to manifests itself as kinetic energy. By the time that you are producing what you want to happen there is likely enough momentum built up to help you get ahead.

Another physics principle there: Inertia. An object at rest will tend to stay at rest, an object in motion will tend to stay in motion. How do you change either? Exert energy!

Are you satisfied with where you are now? Perhaps you are or you know people that are, and this prohibits them from realizing their full potential. Their satisfaction has manifested itself as the maladaptive behavior of complacency.

In the past you or people you know may have reacted or behaved in certain ways that may have been destructive, unhealthy, or just plain bad. Because history has taught people who use maladaptive behaviors that they can often get away with them, they will have a tendency to use them over and over again—probably making them a habit. On the other hand, there are adaptive behaviors that are psychologically healthy alternatives that will often give better results to their users than their maladaptive equivalents.

Take, for example, the person that orders something and is delivered the wrong thing. Experience teaches us that most disagreements stem from misunderstandings. In this case, there was probably some barrier to communication or other flaw that caused the misunderstanding. The maladaptive way of dealing with this situation is probably to yell, scream, and otherwise berate the order-taker; the adaptive way of handling is in understanding that there was probably a misunderstanding and mutually searching for a way to remedy it.

People Mechanics – Part 2

You might be asking yourself: “Which is better…episodic or procedural memory?” The simple answer: Procedural. I recall hearing an interview of a psychologist in which he took an Alzheimer’s patient to a golf course once. This patient was, once, a very avid golfer. Upon getting to the golf course and getting his hands on some golf clubs everything about golfing came back to the man. However, on the way back from the golf course the gentleman saw the golf course and the beautiful day and remarked how “beautiful the day was” and that they should go golfing.

I’ve long held to the belief that this is the reason that the military emphasizes battle drills. Just as you have probably seen soldiers, marines, sailors, or airmen march (although it is more likely to be one of the first two), you probably noticed that everyone performed a series of precise, discrete series’ of movements along with other members of their formation that can amount to some very spectacular sights to see. The same can be said for rifle drills: Everything in these drills and ceremonies is nothing more than a number of actions, one after the other. They can be repeated until perfect, able to be memorized to the point where someone can do it in their sleep.

The concept of drills does not stop at simply marching troops or inspecting their arms: Battle drills are used for many team maneuvers from building a bridge to constructing a mine-laying system. The more that drills are repeated and “drilled” into memory, the less a person needs to think about them when it comes to doing them. The concept of drilling removes the need to consciously thinking about performing a task when it matters, rather it is made a “second nature.”

Now, the talk about the emotional component earlier is not lost to the battle drill. The feeling of being a part of a team, that one has purpose, a sense of urgency: These are both satisfying emotions, adding to the effectiveness of the battle drill and why it can be remembered so well.

So, memories are often not simple bits of information stored in your brain. Rather, they are often embedded in a web of context. Data coupled with more data, random bits of different memories and types thereof comprising a larger set of data, eventually linking all thoughts in the brain together to form the sum of your experiences. Context is the key.

I’ve met people who have difficulty, for one reason or another, learning new data because of the lack of context it has in their everyday life. Of course, not everyone is going to find an essay on “Ode to a Grecian Urn” important, or even satisfying or pleasurable, to fit into their worldview. A person who has an affinity for history, art, literature, teaching, or to just broaden their perspective on the world at large is, however, going to take note of the Keats piece. People are often not compelled to expand their horizons with new sorts of information that don’t directly apply to their immediate world, though. How is one to combat this?

Of course, there is the “Knowledge is power,” contrasted with “ignorance is bliss.” I always think that a mediocre individual came up with that last saying. The first statement, however, holds some interesting ramifications with it…if we look a bit deeper.

Human Mechanics: Awareness, Learning, and Context - Part 1

I have recently found myself picking apart the mechanics of fundamental human processes: Decision-making, learning, adapting, dealing with change, etc. To mention nothing of the psychology involved, it certainly has been a multi-disciplinary approach. Fields ranging from Information Theory to physics have found their way into my process and analysis of this academic study: One that I hope will have practical applicability.

Where to start?

General wisdom through the ages has passed on the adage that people have a tendency to do two things: Seek pleasure and avoid pain. Fueled by advancements in current technology this has been challenged. Dr. Gregory Berns of Emory University has dug more into the “what do humans want?” question. If pleasure is a sensational emotion that only happens occasionally then, it stands to reason, that something more substantive must exist along the way. Take from this that the ideal place to be is somewhere between pleasure and pain: Satisfaction. Let’s first examine this by looking at the definition of pleasure with a simple “define:” search in Google.

“· a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience; "he was tingling with pleasure"

· joy: something or someone that provides pleasure; a source of happiness;”

Two definitions stand out, yes: The second pointing at joy, or a source of being happy. The first one points to the simple abstraction and how difficult it is to pin down the true meaning of pleasure. Of course, it’s a subjective term, but pleasure is always a positive thing—therefore finding a definition across a sampling of many individuals, many subjectivities, shouldn’t be impossible.

Next, satisfaction:

“· The human experience of being filled and enriched by their experience.”

And:

“ · act of fulfilling a desire or need or appetite”

Imagine moving up a hill: The hilltop represents the completion of the task, winning the prize for the effort that you’ve exerted. Although this supersedes satisfaction into pleasure, pleasure—especially in this context—is fleeting. There is also the downside that exposure to too much pleasure could desensitize its recipient to all but the most intense forms of it. Satisfaction, on the other hand, is achieved as a feeling of atonement for the accomplishment of component tasks of a larger pleasure-bringing project. In the long run, the seeking of satisfaction is better than the seeking of pleasure.

As with all behavioral mechanisms—satisfaction-seeking and pleasure-seeking, for instance, there is a “spectrum” to be observed. On one side of the spectrum of satisfaction there is complacency. Complacency is the maladaptive form of satisfaction. Destructive pleasure-seeking is the maladaptive form of pleasure. We’ll re-visit this topic later.

When we are trying to remember something one way of increase retention levels is to couple the proposed memory with something pleasurable. I’ve heard this recommended as coupling things you want to remember with thoughts of sex; while this might work (especially as a pleasurable form of memory utilization) , it fails to get to the heart of the matter and how memory really functions. Research into how people store memories show that the brain doesn’t store discrete pieces of data—such as the way a hard drive stores data as “1’s” and “0’s”. Instead the human memory is contextual in nature: When a topic was brought up by a person you were having a conversation with, did it make you remember something else? People have different types of memories. Among these are procedural and episodic. As you would imagine, episodic memory deals with the types of memories from your personal experiences and your past. Procedural memory, then, is what I often refer to as “drill memory,” or the type of memory that you utilize when you are doing something that is a set series of steps like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, arming a landmine, or formatting a report.

I read somewhere that people will remember about a third of what they read, half of what they see, and all of what they feel. Why does the “remember something alongside sex” trick work so well? Sex, generally, makes a person feel good: Thoughts that are coupled with satisfying or pleasurable feelings are well-retained. That is not to say, however, that data coupled with painful feelings doesn’t get remembered: It’s just that painful memories can be more easily forgotten and replaced with bad memories or otherwise repressed.

Basic Game theory in Corporate Combat

“Do not take the first step without considering the last.”

—Karl von Clauswitz, “On War”

Anyone can be taught this doctrine for decision-making in the combat of business; but when it comes down to it, everyone makes decisions of risk using their heart: Whether this be from the rational logic of a veteran and hardened combat commander, or based on the feeling leader's passions and prejudices. In a system where multiple intelligent agents come together and the numbers of the interacting agents are small enough as that each has a perceptible influence on the others, a model can be created to describe, predict, and control these interactions. All this is done to maximize returns from these interactions, and in the case of combat: To win.

Games studied by game theory are well-defined, finite, discrete objects. Inasmuch, it consists of a set of players, a set of strategies available, and a return for each combination of strategies. Normally, each player has some information about the choices of the other players, but there are still variables involved. Again, we are trying to eliminate the risk of those remaining variables and uncover the values of all variables possible.

No matter how many variables you uncover, you may not know exactly what the enemy commander will do, for his or her "split moment" decisions are often driven by their instincts: The inherent dispositions towards particular actions; generally inherited as patterns of responses or reactions to specific kinds of situations. They are most easily observed in responses to emotions and actions, generally serving to set in motion mechanisms that evoke an individual to action and are influenced by learning, environments, and natural principles.

Moreover, the better a player's education level, it seems, the more rational their reactions and decisions tend to be.

A symmetric game is one where the returns for utilizing a particular strategy give the same returns regardless of who is playing them. Asymmetric games are often (but not always) such that there are not identical strategy sets for both players. When all strategy combinations add to zero (or, when one player benefits equally to the amount of the others' loss). This is called a zero sum game.

In our battlespaces, all games should be considered sequential games such that later players have some knowledge (but not necessarily perfect knowledge--when all players know the moves previously made by all other players) of the actions of earlier players. This allows for using the "economics of experience" to help in the decision-making process.

Determining the outcome of the geometries of the battlespace can be complex, but remember: Intelligence drives the process of good decision making. Often, the intelligence cycle often uncovers updated or new information. Bayes Theorem shows us an understanding how the probability that a theory is true is affected by a new piece of evidence. One thing that Bayes Theorem shows us is that too much information can adversely affect the decision making process. Too much information can cloud judgment and hinder the combat solution from being a process with a simple result.

This being said: Competent, trained, experienced intelligence staff analysts should be able to turn the incoherence of much information into a coherent stream of highly useful intelligence for its customers. Regardless of how complex the process as a senior combat decision-maker with your staff is, keep the input and the output of the system as simple as possible: Clear, precise, simple orders and maneuvers help to eliminate confusion in the chain of command. Competent and experienced staff advising the commander and the subsequent echelons of leadership helps ensure that the intelligence process runs smoothly, and thus, the decision-making process.

Monkey Mondays: Three For the Price of One

Cowboy Monkey!



Baby Monkeys come to Des Moines...again!


Case of the stolen monkeys!