The Big Questions on the Ukraine War
I was published by the good folks at Real Clear Defense the other day outlining the different Courses of Action (COA’s) that U.S. commentators and policy makers have started organizing around. You can find my ...
The culture opportunity
I’ve given a variety of case interviews that include evaluating a merger or acquisition. The question usually takes some form of “is this acquisition a good idea or not?” Nearly every candidate includes “culture” as ...
Modern NATO aligned fighter jets primer
You’ve seen my post about modern U.S. fighter jets. Now you can get the scoop on other friendly fighters. First, the stats: The details F-4 Phantom One of two U.S. built jets on the list, the ...
Why we need originalism in the courts
What Is Originalism? Originalism is a theory of judicial interpretation arguing that courts should interpret laws based on some sort of “originalness.” It’ll make more sense with a quick explanation of the two major camps of ...
Time to reorganize the U.S. military
Our Military Today comes from Yesterday As I covered in my last post, not a lot has changed in our military structure since President Truman signed into law the National Security Act of 1947. This ...
Current military reorganization primer
Gaius Marius reorganized the Roman military in a way that made the soldiers more dependent on their generals than on their civilian leadership. Then, the Roman Republic fell into tyranny. OK, so there’s more to the story, ...
Modern U.S. fighter jet primer
Is there a difference between all the different fighter jets you hear about? Does the Army or Navy fly fighter jets, or is it just the Air Force? How many different fighter jets does the U.S. fly ...
Primer on radar “stealth”
In December 2016, Trump started agitating for the possibility of getting upgraded F/A-18 Super Hornets instead of fulfilling a contract for F-35 Lightning II’s. The F-35 program had long been beset by cost overruns and delays (see my post on ...
Current military aircraft controversies
The military trains for combat, but can it handle the scrutiny of the public? Recent changes in military aircraft have battle-hardened the armed forces to public scrutiny. We got up-to-speed on the basics of military aircraft ...
Primer on modern military aircraft
It’s an exciting time for military aircraft. Critics and congress have been battling head-to-head with top Air Force and Navy brass over some of the most technologically advanced aircraft ever created. Long before first contact with the enemy, ...
Three ways Politifact can be Politifalse
I love the idea of organizations like Politifact. These organizations fact-check the statements of politicians and other entities to explain the truth or fiction behind their claims. I think that people make better decisions when they’re better informed, ...
The myth of getting things done
Time and again, the media decries gridlock in the government. Papers and pundits shout that “the government halts progress!” or “the government is broken!” or “the government can’t get anything done!” Although our hero motifs usually include ...
Scalia, the GOP, and Obama – the world we’ve created
Scalia’s death Justice Scalia was a solid advocate of originalism in constitutional interpretation (see my post here for what that means). This often put him on the conservative side of things, and in favor with the GOP. ...
Out of alignment: U.S. vision and strategy
This post builds off of my previous posts about the concept of a “Conflict of Visions” written by Thomas Sowell. See the brief summary here or the in-depth explanation here. It also builds on my explanation of the ...
Why politics frustrates you – the conflict of visions
One of the more eye-opening books that I’ve read recently has been Thomas Sowell’s “A Conflict of Visions.” I have one or two things I want to say about it, but I’m going to need to give ...
The Conflict of Visions explained
My other post (found here) explains the essence of the two visions and should be read first. Here, I want to dive a little deeper into the implications of the different visions. I’ll offer a brief explanation ...
Silly media
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” Attributed to Mark Twain I used to really like TV news. Like, when I was 12, for some reason I ...
Grounding radical change
You may have previously read my piece that got published in the Marriott Student Review about Refining Porter’s Five Forces. I recently remembered that I had also written this guy for the MSR. This one wasn’t ...
Rugged landscapes explained
Coming up with good strategies can be really hard. In 1997, Daniel A. Levinthal wrote a paper called “Adaptation on Rugged Landscapes” explaining a bit about how life works and why it makes good strategy so difficult. ...
Redefining Porter’s 5 forces
I wrote this during the summer of 2013 but didn’t publish it because it seemed a little long, even for my blog. However, I ended up submitting it to the Marriott Student Review and it ...
Further examples of the 10 Forces
This is an extension of my post about refining Porter’s Five Forces. Read the post here before reading this one. Further Examples: Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) Market Let’s take a look at the carbonated soft drink (CSD) ...
Tips for charitable giving
I’m surprised I haven’t already written this one since I’ve done so much on this topic already. Having done two internships for non-profit organizations (Polaris Project and Eagle Condor) and worked extensively with others through BYU’s Anti-Human Trafficking ...
Ethics and Snowden
When I was taking my business ethics class, I was often surprised to hear others mention that it must be easy. After all, ethics has to be easy, it’s just about choosing right over wrong! ...
Dating and game theory (or why the worst that could ...
I’ve been wanting to do a post about Dating and Game Theory for quite a while. It all started when I was at church one day and the topic was dating and the lady speaking was trying to ...
What should I major in – follow my dreams or ...
To Be an English Major, or Not To Be an English Major I have a part-time job doing analysis for Brigham Young University. I basically go through the heaps of survey data that BYU collects from ...
Self Interested does not mean selfish
When People Hear “Self-Interested,” They Often Think of Jerks “Self-interest” tends to be an ugly phrase among non-economists (particularly sociologists to my limited experience.) For many people it implies screwing other people over, taking advantage ...
Federal vs. Household budgets
I saw the following message about federal vs household budgets floating around Facebook like crazy during the election when the federal budget was popular to talk about. With the fiscal cliff stuff going on, I’ve ...
Money as no object
How many of you have engaged in the fight to decide what you should do for your career? As a college student, it seems to be the ultimate vexing problem of everyone without a job ...
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