What I’ve been reading (and watching) this week ending 24 August 2025

Lessons from U.S. Army Special Ops on Becoming a Leader

• Failure of Initiative → Make a “hasty plan”; Choose your own advisor
• Failure of Emotional Confidence → Emotion reset; Eat your demons
• Failure of Imagination → Develop the planner, not the plan; Go beyond probabilities into possibilities
• Failure of Strategic Vision → Target victory; Distinguish familiar stress from new stress

Moderation is good for its own sake — by Noah Smith

““Do the stuff that works” is simply a good approach to governing a country, and one that America’s political class used to value more than they do now.”

Why You Need Systems Thinking Now

1. Define your desired future state
2. Frame the problem, reframe it, and repeat
3. Focus on flows and relationships, not products or services
4. Nudge your way forward

The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything

Ukraine Isn’t the Model for Winning the Innovation War — War on the Rocks

“This improvised system did indeed provide significant support during the early years of the war. It mobilized thousands of teams, enabled rapid response, and supported the front line. But its limitations were obvious. A lack of strategic planning, fragmented solutions, an inability to scale, and a weak engineering base resulted in the model reaching its limit by 2024–2025. The result was a zoo of technological platforms — uncoordinated, unintegrated, and often ineffective under conditions of modern electronic warfare.”