Chris Papasadero

Noah and I are big believers in cross pollinating knowledge and approaches. Some of our friends, including today’s guest, Chris Papasadero (CPP), are current and former Green Berets, known as Army Special Forces. They way they plan, the autonomy that is given to their teams to execute in difficult places, and the fact that they have built in redundancies to every plan (and expect things to fail) holds many lessons for people operating in other contexts. Business, entrepreneurship, and even creative endeavors that require briefs, stand to learn a lot from this world. Also, you should hire them when they finish doing the hard yards in hostile places, and sign up for Brady Moore’s excellent newsletter, which talks about strategy and planning on a daily basis. - Colin (CJN) Chris here. The role of leadership in Army Special Operations is as much ethics as it is strategy. Throughout the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC), Green Berets develop frameworks for considering the implications of the choices they’ll make: strategically, legally, and ethically. They are trained to build plans that can bend and adapt when combat presents unforeseen obstacles. Take this HBR case on an insurgent situation in Iraq, where a lieutenant must decide “whether to risk his life and that of other soldiers to reenter a home rigged with an explosive and save three Iraqis.” Decisions like that must be made quickly and based on a strategically sound and legal framework. You might be tempted to make one call when you first read it, and change your mind as you keep reflecting. Many people make these choices about right or wrong based on “gut feeling”, but what Green Berets learn in SFQC is to first evaluate situations using frameworks, making sure they’ve thought through as many scenarios as possible. Only after they apply rigor to their process can they use their gut. There are plenty of frameworks available, from the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP), to the Force Multiplier, to SWOT Analysis, to the CARVER Matrix (one of my personal favorites). The simplest “martial” mental model I’ve found useful – to the point of becoming instinctive – is enumerated in the Special Forces values painted on the cafeteria wall in the compound at Camp Mackall, North Carolina: “Consider the Second- and Third-Order Effects!” When things don’t go as planned in situational training exercises, Green Berets get it hammered into their heads that their actions have reactions that become other causes, with cascading effects. A seemingly minor cultural slight to a local warlord can mean losing a key alliance in an austere combat situation – a loss every Green Beret guards against at all times. Despite how complicated it sounds, there’s a simple methodology for developing branches to the plan with such considerations.Considering second and third order effects is a major part of creating plans that can evolve as events unfold – and this is the point of the Green Beret way of planning:"The focus of any planning process should be to quickly develop a flexible, tactically sound, and fully integrated and synchronized plan that increases the likelihood of mission success with the fewest casualties possible. However, any operation may “outrun” the initial plan. The most detailed estimates cannot anticipate every possible branch or sequel, enemy action, unexpected opportunities [...] Fleeting opportunities or unexpected enemy actions may require a quick decision to implement a new or modified plan.” – Field Manual 101-5, Staff Organization and OperationsWhy is this interesting? Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Today’s Green Berets believe the very same thing, and have created methodologies like the Detachment Mission Planning Process that use planning to prepare for the many possible paths combat can take. Each Green Beret writes his team’s own plans (which is uncommon throughout the military), taking responsibility both for the successes of the plan, as well as for its inevitable failures. That last point is the big one: Green Berets build plans that anticipate their own failure. Only by acknowledging and actively seeking the weaknesses in their approach, can they push the plan further away from those failure points. It’s one part game theory, combined with a heavy dose of humility in recognizing that the unexpected is the norm in a combat zone. Failure mode for a Green Beret is to suck it up, slam a laptop on the hood of a HMMWV, and get on with adjusting the plan. That’s the whole point of planning for a Green Beret: to understand what should happen in order to have a framework for what could happen, and to then be prepared for what inevitably will happen.Military men often earn a reputation for deterministic thinking: Step A, then Step B, in that order. While we can save the high-strung veteran heuristics for another day, systematic thinking is the right way to start your day, and then probabilistic thinking can take over once “the first bullet flies” come nightfall (EENT). (CPP)A few more models and practices worth trying for yourself:Green Berets’ unwritten (til now) cultural code: The Quiet ProfessionalExpanding perception and skill using team-internal cross-trainingHow Green Berets link planning to execution with rehearsalsPerception, comprehension & projection at the core of situational awarenessThe Standard Operating Procedure: a Green Beret Practice for DadsMap of the Day:A look at Chinese port investment in Africa. “There are at least 46 existing or planned port projects in sub-Saharan Africa, which are funded, built, and or operated by Chinese entities. Chinese investment was present in roughly 17 percent of the 172 sub-Saharan African ports captured in the 2017 World Port Index. These ports are positioned along each coast, providing Chinese access to main maritime routes and chokepoints.” (NRB)Quick Links:This is great: How to be a library archive tourist. “When I'm traveling and am at a loss for how to spend my time, I look up as many libraries I can in the area I'll be traveling to, and I check to see if they have special collections. Then I make an appointment with the library to visit those special collections, and usually it means I get to spend a day in a quiet, climate-controlled room with cool old documents. It's like a museum but with no people, and where you have to do all the work, which is honestly my idea of a perfect vacation.” Via the always excellent Laura Olin newsletter. (NRB)I’ve been waiting forever for Chrome to add a reader mode similar to what’s in Safari. Well, the good news is Chrome 75, which just came out, has it. The bad news is that it’s a four-step process to set it up for now as it’s a test feature. Here’s the instructions on getting it up and running. (NRB)Good primer on the dispute between the city of San Francisco and Lyft over dockless e-bikes and the exclusivity of their bikeshare contract. (Previous WITI on bikeshare/micromobility.) (NRB)Netflix series on Joseph Campbell “The Power of Myth”. (CJN)Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Chris (CPP)

Why is this interesting? - The Green Beret Edition

Chris (CP) is a friend of WITI. He’s a former action guy, a screenwriter, and a business operator. Along with our pal Brady, he is responsible for one of the most read WITI editions of all time: the Go Bag Edition. We like to have a range of different folks and backgrounds on MMD, and Chris doesn’t disappoint as a multi-hyphenate. Have a great week. -Colin (CJN)Tell us about yourself.By day, I’m the Chief Commercial Officer for a commercial intelligence company, and I live in NYC. Prior to my career in tech, I was a Green Beret in the U.S. Army’s Special Forces; by night I write fiction about that world of clandestine military operations.Describe your media diet. My media diet isn’t publications, it’s people. I like to outsource my thinking to people who are smarter than me on a thing, I think it’s better than having to sift through the opinions of strangers. A few of my one-on-one discussions have been going on for years, mostly via email:2 years: a debate about the best BBQ sauce (it’s Franklin’s)3 years: sharing useful mental models and leadership lessons learned.10 years: sharing the best places to hunt and fish in Oregon (the Wallowas and the Metoulius)15 years: swapping inspiration modern designers like Achille Castiglioni and Vernor Panton.20 years: sharing scifi book recommendations (recents: 1, 2, 3)Part of our company’s strategy is combining data with analysis to provide a sort of 'PDB-as-a-service', so my first read of the day is whatever our London team has put out that morning. I read paper copies of the FT and WSJ to see who has the better predictions – it’s always us. We called Russia/Ukraine months before anyone else. I get the executive edition of WITI and so should you.What’s the last great book you read?I have read and re-read Anathem by Neal Stephenson since it came out. Impossible to talk about without spoiling the plot, but it’s an entertaining and accessible survey of advanced concepts in mathematics, physics, and philosophy.What are you reading now?The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander (RIP) and A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester. I’m trying to learn about why it seems so expensive and hard for a man to build his own home. Maybe we’d have less of a housing crunch if we could build our own homes and not rely on banks and contractors.What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?I had steep library fines as a very young man and learned it was better for me to just buy the book and sample it here and there. It might take me years to get through the whole thing.Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?We’ve lost the thread on the very subjects that allowed us to progress as a civilization: everyone should be reading about formal logic, reason, grammar, and rhetoric - your classic trivium. These topics are the only antidote to the post-truth cancer.What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? The actual phone app probably isn’t famous enough! Imagine calling someone and asking them how their day went, what the weather is in their hometown, and what their summer plans are. Healthy and pure.Plane or train?Plane. Virgin Atlantic for life.What is one place everyone should visit? The Old Souk in Erbil. Soaring brick arches over piles of spices, and friendly Kurds, happy to see you.Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep intoDuring the pandemic, I was convinced to take some of my military stories and weave them into fiction. I’ve been lucky this year in screenwriting and have optioned two scripts, one of which has been greenlit and the other is in packaging. For source material, I prefer dusty stuff and strategy graveyards, foreign and domestic. I love Tom Clancy, but he was an insurance salesman who thought soldiers were boy scouts and spies were beltway WASPs. The reality is much grittier – and cinematic."The ultimate inspiration is the deadline" – Nolan Bushnell, inventor of Pong, and founder of Atari and the Chuck E. Cheese. (CP) --WITI x McKinsey:An ongoing partnership where we highlight interesting McKinsey research, writing, and data.COVID-19: What comes next. It’s been over two years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Here’s a look back—and a lens on what’s next. A special feature takes stock of the pandemic's effects on business and society, plus where we're going as the transition toward endemicity continues. Don't miss it.—Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Chris (CP) —Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).

The Monday Media Diet with Chris Papasadero 

Chris Papasadero (CP) is a good friend and Special Forces vet. He’s recently started an excellent new newsletter called Ooda Soup, which focuses on translating ideas from the military to those of us in the world of entertainment and creativity. You may remember that we shouted out in the Language Compression Edition. He was kind enough to let us run an edition from this week that we really enjoyed on Special Operations Truths. We hope you enjoy as well and subscribe to Ooda Soup. - Noah (NRB)Chris here. Special Operations Forces (including Special Forces, a.k.a. the Green Berets) are guided by a few principles that function both as a mission statement as well as help politicians, civilians—and even writers—understand how special operations are built, deployed, and function.I don’t pretend to be the best Green Beret that ever served—or even a very good one—but I served with some of the finest men (and some women, too) who have ever lived. They were leaders, flexible and dangerous thinkers, and as disciplined and fit as any Olympian.Why is this interesting?The set of five “truths,” which come straight from the Special Operations Command’s own website, are helpful for understanding how these forces operate but also provide some fairly universal guidance on operating well in nearly any environment.WITI Classifieds:We are experimenting with running some weekly classifieds in WITI. If you’re interested in running an ad, you can purchase one through this form. If you buy this week, we’ll throw an extra week in for free on any ad. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a line.Do you want to improve your life by tapping into behavioral science insights? Listen to the award-winning Behavioral Grooves podcast today! Listen to Behavioral GroovesNudge, get customer insights with ease. Try NudgeA world of music in your inbox, one song at a time. Get Ecléctico.Truth 1: Humans are more important than hardwarePeople—not equipment—make the critical difference. The right people, highly trained and working as a team, will accomplish the mission with the equipment available. On the other hand, the best equipment in the world cannot compensate for a lack of the right people.This one goes without saying for a lot of situations, but the key to Special Operations training is the focus on the “whole man,” because more often than not when things go pear-shaped, you don’t have access to the equipment, tools, or resources you typically might. By developing skills—the most important of which are flexibility and resiliency—SOF can be relied upon to FFIO no matter what. Being inside Special Operations means that when you’re not deployed down range, you’re in schools, learning how to operate new equipment, speak new languages, or build the toolkit inside your head that you can carry with you everywhere you go.One of the best parts about the Jason Bourne series was how the Treadstone agents were able to move about with almost nothing—a bag full of cash, your wits, your social skills, your ingenuity. The Bourne series was a referendum on laser Rolexes and golden guns—and closer to the real world as a result.Truth 2: Quality is better than quantityA small number of people, carefully selected, well trained, and well-led, are preferable to larger numbers of troops—some of whom may not be up to the task.Small teams of people who are able to work in sync can change the world. I often refer to the Founders—a small group of determined businessmen and political thinkers—when I talk about small groups able to make big impacts.An ODA of Green Berets—12 men—can and have altered the course of history. Because of their training, collaboration, and service to the greater mission, their output was decisive, targeted, and powerful. “Force multiplication” is the name of the game: how can we achieve the maximum possible output with a few small inputs?Truth 3: Special Operations Forces cannot be mass producedIt takes years to train operational units to the level of proficiency needed to accomplish difficult and specialized SOF missions. Intense training—both in SOF schools and units—is required to integrate competent individuals into fully capable units. This process cannot be hastened without degrading ultimate capability.Nobody shows up in Special Operations and “just gets it.” The number and diversity of skills required, the specialized training, and most importantly, the ability to work alongside other wildly different and specialized individuals, isn’t something that can be industrialized. This one is especially important for people—particularly filmmakers—to understand if/when they’re going for realism. There’s no such thing as the singleton James Bond out there running and gunning, but rather small teams of people who’ve been working together for years, training over and over and over again on their craft.Truth 4: SOF cannot be created after emergencies occurCreation of competent, fully mission-capable units takes time. Employment of fully capable special operations capability on short notice requires highly trained and constantly available SOF units in peacetime.This one is more defensive in nature. It’s easy for a politician or Pentagon official to say, “We need more Green Berets and Navy SEALs.” It’s more likely that guy is out of office by the time there’s a hardened, well-trained SOF asset ready to roll.Truth 5: Most special operations require non-SOF supportThe operational effectiveness of our deployed forces cannot be, and never has been, achieved without being enabled by our joint service partners. The support of Air Force, Army, Marine, and Navy engineers, technicians, intelligence analysts, and the numerous other professions that contribute to SOF, have substantially increased our capabilities and effectiveness throughout the world.As in filmmaking, the real heroes are the crew: the people diligently doing their jobs day in and day out in support of a director or producer’s vision. One of the most important lessons I learned as a Green Beret is that you can get a lot more done being kind to that bean counter or truck driver than just screaming for more ammo or more transport. They have the autonomy and willingness to go the extra mile for you, and I’m far more grateful to the Private First Class who did a few years shuffling paperwork to help me get the job done, than I am to some spotlight ranger who believes he ought to be worshipped for his status. (CP)​​—Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Chris (CP)—Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.