Intelligence Analyst "Words To Live By" -- #6 (SurveyMonkey.com)

This is the sixth of 10 surveys I intend to conduct to determine which are the "best" quotes, sayings and words of wisdom for intelligence analysts.

If you want more detail on why I am doing this, see the previous post.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Voting on the first five lists is still open:
List 1
List 2
List 3
List 4
List 5

The current frontrunners from the fifth list include (with the percentage representing the percent of respondents who said move it up the list):

"90% of everything you need is public." -- Numerous (52%)
"There is nothing more necessary than good intelligence to frustrate a designing enemy and nothing requires greater pains to obtain." -- George Washington (74%)
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." -- Yogi Berra (52%)
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." -- Aristotle (70%)
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." -- Sherlock Holmes (77%)
 "Correlation is not causation." -- Anonymous (72%)
 "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." -- Sun Tzu (74%)
  
All other entries are currently below 50%.

Intelligence Analyst "Words To Live By" -- #5 (SurveyMonkey.com)

This is the fifth of 10 surveys I intend to conduct to determine which are the "best" quotes, sayings and words of wisdom for intelligence analysts.

If you want more detail on why I am doing this, see the previous post.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Voting on the first four lists is still open:
List 1
List 2
List 3
List 4

The current frontrunners from the fourth list include (with the percentage representing the percent of respondents who said move it up the list):

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." -- Richard Feynman (61%)
"Trust but verify." -- Ronald Reagan (57%)
"Things change. There is no 'final' version of a report. There is only the 'current' version." -- Anonymous (77%)
"You are not doing your job if your research doesn't surprise you." -- Cynthia Storer (62%)
"If you think intelligence is expensive, try ignorance." -- David Jimenez (73%)


All other entries are currently below 50%.

Intelligence Analyst "Words To Live By" -- #4 (SurveyMonkey.com)

This is the fourth of 10 surveys I intend to conduct to determine which are the "best" quotes, sayings and words of wisdom for intelligence analysts.

If you want more detail on why I am doing this, see the previous post.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Voting on the first three lists is still open:
List 1
List 2
List 3

The current frontrunners from the third list include (with the percentage representing the percent of respondents who said move it up the list):

"A problem well formulated is a problem half solved." -- Charles Kettering (69%)
"No matter what your conclusions are, always ask yourself if you have factored in the possibility of deception." -- Jim Breckenridge (73%)
"Knowledge a week too late is the same as ignorance." -- George Friedman (69%)
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what no one has thought." -- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (74%)

All other entries are currently below 50%.

Is The Games For Change Festival Important To Intelligence Professionals? (Gamesforchange.org)

I hope to answer this question over the next day or two.  I made the decision to go to the Games For Change Festival primarily to see what it was all about.  This idea of "serious games" is gaining lots of traction in a variety of different fields -- almost none of which have anything to do with intelligence.

When people think about serious games, they usually think about improving education or health care or changing the world in other positive ways.  There is nothing wrong with that, of course, and nothing wholly inconsistent with this view and the discipline of intelligence, but I recently witnessed a pretty heated debate over whether games that explain the basics of macroeconomics "belong".  Not sure how anyone will react to the idea of serious games for intelligence professionals...

That said, the intelligence community has been exploring the educational value of games for quite some time (with mixed results, I hear).  The recent Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) Sirius request for proposals is clear evidence that the US national security intelligence community intends to continue to explore how games can meet the IC's needs.

Of course, my own (personal and research) interests lie along these lines so going to this summit makes sense.  I just wish it didn't conflict with another excellent conference, the Game Education Summit, which, this year, is on the west coast.  GES is an excellent small conference with a unique opportunity to mingle with academics, designers, artists, developers -- all aspects of the game design and game education fields. 

I will probably be posting at least some updates to my twitter account (@kwheaton) during the conference and will post a wrap-up article when I get back later this week.

Evil Geniuses Teach How (NOT) To Use PowerPoint (YouTube via Danger Room)

Wired magazine's excellent blog, Danger Room takes another look at the use of PowerPoint in the US military. While the entire article is worth reading (Danger Room has covered the relationship between PPT and the military extensively), the video embedded below is priceless...