Monday, December 07, 2009

An economist on vulnerability

There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbably ... Furthermore, we made the terrible mistake ... of forgetting that a fine deterrent can make a superb target. ... We were so busy thinking through some 'obvious' Japanese moves that we neglected to hedge against the choice that they actually made...

-Dr. Thomas C. Schelling, Professor of Economics
Harvard University
1962. Introduction to Roberta Wohlstetter's, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision
Today, I would like you to internalize this lesson of 07 DEC and ponder how it applies today. There is more then one place - and most of them do not involve an enemy in a conventional form. Ponder.

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