On War

Just finished Nate Silver's "The Signal and The Noise". Interesting collection of prediction case studies, seeing what can and can't be effectively predicted. Good for correcting black-and-white thinking. Currently reading "Naples 44", diary of an intelligence officer there just after the US landings. The author is classically trained enough to immediately fall in love with the place despite the war, so it's a strange mix of lounging around Paestum and the stark effects of war. Next in queue: pick one to re-read from Iain M Banks or Pratchett. (Presumably Clausewitz is in your reading list somewhere as well; his book is unfinished but contains both good quotes to mine and real insight into how few military problems are about actual fighting itself.)

I've been waiting years for someone to ask this question :) Wishlited this last night on amazon: Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson Have read these and enjoyed these: General Warfare theory: History of Warfare by Keegan Intel: Intelligence and War by Keegan Counterinsurgency: "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. For a really enjoyable experience read "The Great Game" by Hopkirk first. The Civil War deserves it's own category. Watch the PBS dvds, actually buy them. If you're hungry for more dig into "The Civil War" by Shelby Foote is hefty but it's satisfying. 1776 is a classic. "Blind mans bluff" is a great book about submarine warfare. For more current stuff Robert Kagan is probably the most informed pundit on war and military strategy. WW-II "The Last Lion" books 1 and 2 are about Churchill and they involve lots of military strategy. You should also check out "The gathering storm + the other six books Churchill wrote on WWII. Man I could go on forever. I have "Panzer General" and "Caesar's Conquest of Gaul" on my nightstand... Enjoy...…

If you want to understand the context behind all other books on military strategy written since Clausewitz (any book written in the last hundred years), you must read Clausewitz. If you want to understand why the US Army was so dead set on failing to anticipate the next war and continued to train for symmetric war until very recently, you must read Clausewitz. If you want to understand why the new Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual written by General Petraeus, Lt General Amos, and Lt Colonel Nagl is so celebrated, you must read Clausewitz. You should also read Petraeus et al's Counterinsurgency Field Manual. The difference in tone and scope is staggering. If you want to understand military strategy going forward, you must understand Petraeus's book. I assure you, it is on the nightstand of the President and every military officer (and not because it says that on the cover, but because I'm one of them). If you are running a startup, read the Petraeus book as though you are the insurgent. If you are at MSFT or Google, read it as though you are in the US Army.

Have you read Clausewitz On War? That was one of my favorite books last year. This is more general than you are looking for and it stops a bit short of air war but it helped me to put historical events into a global context. The outline of history; being a plain history of life and mankind. Rev. and brought up to date by Raymond Postgate and G.P. Wells. With maps and plans by J.F. Horrabin. Wells, H. G. 1866-1946. (Herbert George), Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday 1971, Book. 1103p., D21 .W4 1971 I'd say definitely search for books written about Iraq and Afghanistan, that should give you some information about current strategies.

I used to have a lot more time for non CS reading and actually made an Amazon list on this topic back in 2005: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2INJSM38... (http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2INJSM38IDMDZ/ref=cm_sw_r_de_lm) 1. On War (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Carl Von Clausewitz 2. Leadership: The Warrior's Art by Barry R. McCaffrey 3. Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach by Dandridge M. Malone 4. The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat by James R. McDonough 5. The Art of Maneuver: Maneuver-Warfare Theory and AirLand Battle by Robert Leonhard 6. Strategy: Second Revised Edition (Meridian) by B. H. Liddell Hart 7. The Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli 8. Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri by Tsunetomo Yamamoto 9. The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 10. The Art of War (Shambhala classics) by Sun Tzu 11. The Prince (Bantam Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli 12. Evolutionary Game Theory by Jörgen W. Weibull 13. On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse-tung 14. The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides…

About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following books helped me a lot in that respective, and more: 1. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing Warfare 2. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like "The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new Big"). 3. Founters At Work 4. Wikinomics, Wisdom of Crowds, The Tipping Point (Blink! was alright). I am looking forward to reading "The Long Tail" and "The starfish and the spider"...has anyone read them yet? 6. Why We Buy 7. Hackers and Painters 8. The E-Myth revisited 9. The Art of the Start 10. On War, The Art of War by Machiavelli and Sun Tzu (not exactly for startups, but definitely useful) 11. Crossing the Chasm