'The Black Swan at the Tipping Point: Strategy tips of the rich and famous’

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, January 7, 2010 - 5:29 PM Share

That's the title of a paper by a general and a smart ghostwriting subordinate I expect to receive any day now. I am a big fan of innovative thinking. But that is not the same as simply pulling together every popular book about business strategy from recent years, stirring in a soupcon of Malcolm Gladwell, and trying to apply it to our current wars. That is a fad that the gatekeepers at military schools need to eye skeptically. Outside reviewers can help.

travlinman43/flickr

EXPLORE:NORTH AMERICA, EDUCATION, MILITARY
 

RUBBER DUCKY

6:31 PM ET

January 7, 2010

Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer put it best in his ditty The Great Lobachevsky:

Plagiarize,
Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.

 

NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

7:06 PM ET

January 7, 2010

Good stuff

And again, great picture.

 

NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

10:25 PM ET

January 7, 2010

Just testing a blockquote code

If this works, it will put this text in a light blue box with the fancy start quote marks. Here goes.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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