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Pardon, and Happy New Year.

You want these guys.

https://a16z.com/american-dynamism-50/?mkt_tok=MzgyLUpaQi03OTgAAAGItX0ntb3rdfKiQDJ4ZdjV9yiKe6fM0lgx3EwUAIQAMX_0Z53sTByIjLT5p0DMpctPjgyaebwoM0WwSryxDEW2yZfie-tNEkhjHhcYM7QvzIjuPg

Pardon; In 🇺🇸 saying Davos, 🤑💵, MBA, may bring the sort you think you want... but if you want actual warriors for this war, no.

At a certain point the actual fighting types are needed, some would say essential.

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Fair point on the Davos connotations. Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference is probably a better analog. As for MBAs, I know what you mean but beg to differ. The point is that there are certain "business warrior" skill sets needed to advance these issues that live outside the military and other govt organizations. Perhaps there's a better way to express this, but I think the knee-jerk anti-MBA sentiment is often misplaced. Happy New Year back at you!

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deletedJan 2Liked by The Boyd Institute
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Absolutely.

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This doesn’t work in war.

Or other life/death/honor.

Would you want the Fire Department to respond to “incentives “?

Perhaps they should rebrand as “Fire Insurance “? That would be very modern American, but might not bring the sort of firemen you want.

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You seem to have a narrow definition of war. When we are talking about building industrial capacity or enhancing technology competitiveness, incentives absolutely matter. Look at the programs supporting mobilization for WWII, which included tax incentives, subsidies and loans, standardization efforts, and more.

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Dear Sir, I am primarily objecting to the notion the pilot must be incentivized to land the plane safely.

However much my definition of war may be somewhat narrow from the point of view of incentives, my experience of war is broad, certainly broader than financial.

Let me relate a story; just prior to the last deployment to the Middle East, a younger soldier introduced me to his Mother “Mom this is SGT ____ he’s a psycho killer blah blah (I’m not, actually, I am quite modest).

His Mom looked at me.

I looked at her and said

“We have Joint Custody.”

His Mom; “I like Him.”

Meaning me.

Now, if you have someone you love going into Harms way, do you want me or someone with my narrow view, or the Pilot who requires incentives to land safely?

To continue the earlier analogy, if you call the Fire Department, do you want them to ask for your Fire Insurance policy before they move from the station, or to respond immediately, especially if your house is on fire? < this isn’t absurd in the actual real world American context.

Or our actual wars now, especially the last generation, but especially now. We don’t actually move on orders you know, we don’t move until the contracts are cut. I’m not guessing, and I’m not *yet* a contractor. Yet. I have the training by the way... being a pragmatic fellow under it all... but even pragmatists must have core values.

As a vital aside, a vitals point, the American government should only hire mercenaries for its expeditionary forces now, mostly it does... or for anything else like their personal security in DC after Jan 6. No, really . They knew better than to call the police.

No...

(Are you sure you want this?)

As far as the reshoring and revamping of our Industrial base, and it’s modernization, and full throttle press on manufacturing and modernization of our military, and the principles of Boyd, I applaud all this, and it’s why I read and encourage, as far as VC the link I sent is from Andersson Horowitz, who are shaping up to be the Premier Defense VC in America, I think you’ll find yourself in good company, Musk among others... Anduril, and so on.

As far as the incentives, do consider John Boyd was deliberately of humble means, he did all of it on an Officer’s salary and then a Colonel’s modest retirement for 22 years after he retired. The ascetic has power too...

“You can be somebody or do something” - John Boyd.

.Remember- the Mom’s that count like my kind... that’s actually in its own way “being somebody.”

Best of good fortune, do remember the end user customer... cheers.

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