Military & War

As Charlie Munger likes to say, “Extremes in outcome, both good and bad, often instruct best” and there are few realms in which we see more extreme examples than in war. This extremity – psychologically, physically, technologically, strategically – is why this discipline is such fertile ground to till for useful frameworks and ideas. Military history has it all – the highest possible stakes (life and death), a massive sample size (thousands of years), big scale (world-wide conflict), and “binary outcomes” (usually a clear winner and loser).

If we can come to understand how people react and think in dire consequences, we can use that to shine the light on how to structure incentives, culture, and behaviors even in non-dangerous situations. Like much of what we’ve covered so far, these ideas are generally simple, but difficult to implement with consistency. For these reasons, we find Military & War to be fertile hunting grounds for useful ideas that can be ported over into various other life domains.