Vol. III's TOC
Friday, May 18, 2007 at 4:38AM Brainstormed that yesterday, or rather, should I say, I wrote down on a slew of Fortran cards my proposed chapters for Vol. III that I had been contemplating, in a model of sorts that describes why I want to write this book, why I think this subject of grand strategy in a globalized world is important, what is required of people, what goes in, what goes on, what comes out, and why the results matter.
I foresee a preface, an opening chapter, four parts of three chapters each, a conclusion, and an afterword, making for 16 substantive sections in all.
Having constructed this, what I don't see, really, is a continuation of BFA in terms of running down content or arguments, nor do I see a grand exploration of all change led or made possible below the level of the nation state. I see that material flavoring this book, but not driving it. On that score, I will disappoint those who want this or that argument pursued.
There are a number of arguments I want to pursue in the book, but those argument will have to serve the book's primary function as a How-to manual.
This book needs to be timeless, born of a time and based on a challenging need, but not driven by current events.
It will also not be an exercise in futurology, but about how to think systematically about the future, much like my one taught course at the Naval War College.
The subject matter will be global change, but the subject matter will be somewhat irrelevant to the delivery of the how-to. This will not be a book about becoming an expert on globalization per se, crammed with facts and figures. It will be a book about how to become a strategic thinker on global affairs in an era of expansive globalization. I can't tell you the opportunities, but I can help you recognize them. Ditto for the dangers. But no list-making here, because lists change with time.
It will be a book about how you order your life, your mind, and your career in order to become a purveyor of grand strategic visions that inform and influence others.
It will be at once my most personal and impersonal book, reflecting my life most and yet dissecting its function in the most generically translatable terms.
I want to make it as useful as possible for as many as possible.
I see this as the easiest book I've ever written, but easily the hardest to edit. Oddly enough, I don't see a bigger role for Mark Warren as a result--at least not in a hands on sense. Rather, I see much more negotiation between us. I think the first draft will be a breeze and the rewrites seemingly neverending.
I have never been more excited to write anything in my life.
Reader Comments (16)
W00t!!
I don't know if you remember some of my first emails to you (about 3 years back), but this is definitely the book I've been waiting for from you.
It will be a book about how you order your life, your mind, and your career in order to become a purveyor of grand strategic visions that inform and influence others.
Awesome... teach a man to fish!
Are there going to be any of your weekend role-playing scenarios in it? If not, are those going to be mass-marketed in any way? (Have they been already?) Or if not mass-marketed, at lest small press for role-playing at conventions like Gen-Con, Ory-Con, Archon, Dragon-Con?
You just dated yourself (and those of us who are also old enough to actually know what a 'Fortran card' is). My mind is now flooded with memories of getting those infernal punch cards exactly perfect so LSU's IBM 3080 mainframe would process them.
We are all impatiently awaiting Vol III, and are glad to see you putting pen to paper (or card...).
Very cool. I'm reading one of Steve's recommended books, Medici Effect and it would appear that you have reached a point of " intersection" by shifting gears to the cognitive aspect of " how" rather than " what".
QUERY: Will you be comparing your own strategic thinking methodology to that of past strategist/futurists like Herman Kahn, Albert Wohlstetter etc. to show how you differ, advantages vs. disadvantages ?
I think it's a great idea to write this type of book. Critical thinking, (thinking about thinking) is not covered very well in the literature and personally, I think generalizing rather than specializing is more value added. This coming from a PhD!!!
We use them for all sorts of stuff.
I use them to physically (spatially) arrange concepts.
We have very high-end electronics throughout the house, but the furniture is all antique. To me, Fortrans as a usable antique.
Have Bruce Kuklick's "Blind Oracles," as one source.
If you have other surveys to recommend?
Big model for me, as it's been pointed out many times, is Boyd, primarily because of similarity in delivery (the brief delivered thousands of times).
Others I model against are Fukuyama (career expansion), Huntington (strength of conceptualizing), Gladwell (popularizing, speaking fees!), and Friedman of course (primarily on analogizing).
I am developing my own version of an OODA loop for grand strategy. I've had one all along (based primarily on feedback from people, or statements I've heard thousands of times but never understood, typically, for years), but have just never spent the time describing it, although anyone (like Bradd Hayes) who's worked with me over the years will recognize the progression.
I will have to ask Hank Gaffney for his thinking on the names you cite. Hank is my main model on synthesizing.
More to my point is this book, I want to talk about philosophers that really turned me on, like Marx, Hegel, Kant, Mills, Burke. Not that I want to survey their thinking, but describe why it's important to read philosophy at the right points in your life to open up your thinking.
Can't get out of the box unless you read out of the box.
Remember what I wrote in either PNM or BFA (sad, isn't it, that I can't remember my own books, but they're like conjoined twins to me--as in, same major organs): I read almost entirely out of my field.
That book, as I have stated many times, is already written. It's the tale of Emily's cancer and how that made strategic thinking real for me.
Someone else you might want to check out is Daniel H. Kim who wrote a provocative chapter called "Foresight as the Central Ethic of Leadership" published in Practicing Servant Leadership: Succeeding through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness edited by Larry C. Spears and Michele Lawrence. Indianapolis: The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. 2004.
Totally agree on the reading.
I'm about to get on the road but I'll post a list/links here tonight and cc. you and Sean - then readers might play off of it with their own suggestions/comments here.