18 days until Great Powers comes out

What has Tom's work meant to you? We've heard a lot of great stories over the years. I want to highlight some of them in the run-up to the book release. It will sort of be in the spirit of the the famous How did you convert to Tom? post, but a little more focused on how Tom's work has changed you or your life.

The first testimony comes from Bo McGowan from Tom's post the other day, 21 days until Great Powers comes out.

Read your blog--am going directly to Amazon to buy 3. Please tell your Wife that I personally appreciate your service to me. I first saw you during my Air War College study and your brief was incredible. Plus, anyone who thinks Teresa Wright "hung the moon" in Best Years has my support--Incredible what you have done for me in causing me to see the Core, the Gap, the Seam, SysAdmin, Leviathon, and Connecting. You inspire me to think and as an old fighter pilot, I now understand what Admiral Stockdale meant in his great work "Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot."

How has Tom influenced you? Would you be willing to share it in the comments here?

Furthermore, does Bo's story make you think of anyone? Any fighter pilots who need a copy of Great Powers? Any aspiring fighter pilots? Anyone who's interested in fighter pilots? ;-)

Don't forget to buy Great Powers! How many copies can we count on you for?

Comments

[Tom Mull]

My Metanoia: I have been reading the works of Ken Wilber since 1995. He turned me on to Don Beck's "Spirial Dynamics". Don Beck turned me on to Fareed Zakaria and Tom Barnett. I watched that C-Span brief of 2003 (or so--just before PNM came out. That brief was the Metanoia for me. I have bought and read PNM and BFA and I preordered GP back as soon as it was possible from Amazon. I am very much interested in what Ken Wilber call "Integral Politics". I am inclined to think that Tom Barnett and Fareed Zakaria are the best examples of what Don Beck calls "Yellow Meme" thinking as applied to politics that I can think of. Susanne Cook-Greuter would call that the "Stratigest Action Logic" (how aptly named). =)

[Marauder Doc]

One of Tom's Department of Energy converts taught a nuclear weapons course at UC Davis. He showed the C-span version of the brief and I immediately went online seeking more information and found the blog. Oddly enough, up until that point I had never before even heard about PNM, even though I was an International Relations major. I had seen a few things on the "Arc of Instability" in my military science courses, but I didn't "get it" until I saw Tom's brief. Since then, I have essentially made "shrinking the gap" my life's personal and vocational goal.

[David Sutton]

I picked up PNM at a second hand book store and put it aside until I had read through some fiction. That after picking it up and starting it I didn’t stop to talk to friends or family until I had finished it.

From there a young man who had lead a fairly indulgent lifestyle as a part time professional actor and part time hospitality worker started to look at the things he could do in this life, and for the world on which he lived on, that did not involve dressing up in someone else clothes and pretending to be a dead French poet, or office worker (as he has been type cast).

The work that Tom has done, in both his published books, as well as his daily thoughts on the blog, propelled me back to school, working full time now for Australia’s most renowned media company, I divided my time even more and I took to university for the second time via the web and an open learning style curriculum. This time I am taking a grown ups course, a BA in Security, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism studies. I now look for jobs that, once I have finished the degree, will allow me to help close the Gap we all talk about so much these days. I now look for a life more fulfilling then just pretending to be other people.

When study gets hard, I think about the future worth creating and my optimistic grand strategist Tom Barnett.