By building situational awareness, considering outsider perspectives, practicing "war-gaming" techniques, and developing diverse teams to meet strategic goals, organizations can better equip themselves to "anticipate problems and change course when necessary."

See what a retired Army Lieutenant General and the former Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of Merck say can help "find weaknesses in your strategies before you implement them — and developing a rigorous process to do so."

In this compelling article from the Foundation for Economic Education, J Stamatelos examines how violent acts occur out of our feelings of fear, shame, and feeling unsafe. Whether it is a violent act between individuals or mass murder by a terrorist, violence is often a response to feelings of inadequacy, shame, or feeling belittled.

Rather than taking the cognitively difficult path of rising above the adversary or obstacle, those who commit violent acts attempt to cut down those around them. 

"If the pain caused by [one's] grievances is great — so great they can’t stand the emotional pain any longer and must act to eliminate it — extreme violence may simply be a unique attempt to replace negative emotions with ones of dominance and strength."

"Instead of relying on fickle and specialized facts, we can learn versatile concepts."

The Farnam Street blog's exhaustive list of mental models is a fantastic starting point to understand the hidden ways in which our mind can enable us to succeed or hinder us from pursuing opportunities. 

To better utilize the list, however, we need to understand one fundamental truth about all mental models. They are wrong. At least, as this piece illustrates quite quickly, they are not always right, which we may understand to mean they are not absolutely true. 

As Yuval Harrari said, 

“Scientists generally agree that no theory is 100 percent correct. Thus, the real test of knowledge is not truth, but utility. Science gives us power. The more useful that power, the better the science.”

In promotion of the new Brookings Institution Press book From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future, the Brookings Institution brings author Tom Wheeler in for a podcast discussion about the history of network revolutions, and how that history might give us clues as to how we might adapt to communication in the age of the internet.

Tracing the historical path back to the Gutenberg printing press, followed by the invention of the steam locomotive and the telegraph in the 19th century, Wheeler provides a reassurance that we have been here before. The paradigm shift brought on by high-speed network connections is indeed intimidating, but with it comes even more opportunities for growth and development. 

Listen to the podcast episode, and read Wheeler's synopsis of his new book.

Clayton Christensen, along with co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon, explores the paradox of prosperity, that is, the ways in which "so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity." 

Christensen et al examine the process of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in poorer countries, and how these efforts have led to sustainable and continued prosperity. Rather than using standard top-down development plans, hoping that economic change will come, the authors have found that advocating for market-creating innovation enables successful growth and decreases the corruption we see in the top-down model.