An Exercise for the Reader...

One of Charlie's advisors told her early in graduate school that a 50% of what one reads should be from outside their professed academic field. It's great advice, if only because reading about civil wars, torture, and genocide doesn't exactly make for good bedtime reading. And, of course, you'd be surprised what you can learn about your own discipline by discovering what constitutes unanswered questions and controversies in others.

And frankly, it's easy to get bored reading the same dry, on-point analyses all the time. Sometimes you have to go outside the box...way outside the box. (Like thinking about what Moneyball tells you about strategic assessment.) Before her current incarnation as "COIN goddess" (AM's cousin's phrase, not hers), Charlie was rather more of a science nerd (a habit she's found hard to kick). It's rare that these two interests collide, so she leaves this as an exercise for the reader:

How is counter-insurgency (or other forms of complex irregular warfare) like modern intensive-care medicine? Read Atul Gawande's incredible New Yorker piece to find out. (Thanks, Phil.) Leave your thoughts in the comments...