Lost in the wilderness? Competition killing your business? Asteroid on a collision course with your planet? When your survival depends on it there\u2019s always a way. Are you interested in learning the secret to success for all of humankind\u2019s greatest leadership moments? It\u2019s not hyperbolic, it\u2019s biologic: \u201cFreedom of choice to make sense of what\u2019s going on around us and sensible choices for the purpose, place, and people we have the privilege to lead.\u201d Free Minds, Free Spirits, Free Speech, It\u2019s the \u201cCommon Sense Way\u201d to accomplish any purpose. In this book you\u2019ll learn what I learned and what many other common sense leaders across the ages have learned before us: How to Live, Learn, and Lead the \u201cCommon Sense Way.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chapter 5: Identification Friend or Foe?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to make sensible choices in complex unfamiliar situations<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you ever pigeonhole other people, experiences, or events? Is it bad to do so? No\u2014in fact the tendency to categorize and label is a keystone of human intellect and essential to any but the most primitive thinker.\u201d<\/i> Morton Hunt<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
October 2001, 0245 (local time), 25,000 feet above Afghanistan:<\/b> \u201cHard Right,\u201d the pilot screamed over the inter-aircraft communications system (intercom) as the aircraft and my head violently whiplashed left to right. My first thought was \u201csurface to air missile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was wearing an MTX Halo86 parachute and immediately began snapping, tightening, and checking each buckle in the order I learned at \u201cjumpmaster school.\u201d \u201cLook grab. Look grab, pull, pull, check,\u201d I mouthed while lifting my hands and moving my head in the universal pantomime sequence all Halo jumpers go through as part of their pre-jump ritual to rehearse the activation of their main and reserve parachutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll systems are green,\u201d the captain updated over the intercom. \u201cThat was close guys, we almost collided with the other AC-130. Sounds like they misunderstood their altitude directions but we got them squared away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was good to know it wasn\u2019t an enemy missile or mechanically related, but the fact we almost ran into another AC-130 gave me pause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most training exercises and real world operations I had been on over the previous fifteen years had an AC-130 flying overhead at one time or another during the operation. In all those years and all those training events I never recalled having two AC-130\u2032s in the air at the same time over the same target. However, this wasn\u2019t a training event. This was the opening raid of the war against terrorists and every military service, every unit, and every weapon system in the U.S. inventory was available for duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Add in the fact that this was the only show in town, and you have the timeless military planning recipe that calls for as much combat power and as much redundancy as possible. In addition to the two AC-130s there were over 100 other aircraft involved (helicopters, cargo planes, fighter jets, refueling aircraft, command and control aircraft, electronic jamming aircraft, etc.), making this one of the most complicated and intricate plans in modern military history. Plan is a verb, not a noun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planning is how our brains prepare for the unexpected. I kept my parachute on and buckled \u201cjust in case.\u201d The mission of the two AC-130s and their crews was to provide fire support and visual over-watch for an air assault raid on a Taliban compound located on the outskirts of the enemy-infested city of Kandahar. I was on board the AC-130 as the \u201cGround forces liaison officer\u201d (referred to in the military as the \u201cL-N-O\u201d). The military defines the duties of the LNO as follows: \u201cA member of one unit attached to another unit in order to ensure unity of purpose and mutual understanding of action.\u201d In this case, to assist the aircrew with making sense of what was happening on the ground below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the U.S. Air Force \u201cthe AC-130 is a heavily-armed long-endurance aircraft equipped with an array of air-to-ground oriented weapons (105mm howitzer, 25mm Vulcan cannon, and 40mm Bofor\u2019s cannon) that are integrated with sophisticated targeting sensors, satellite navigation, and fire control systems. The aircraft is capable of delivering precision firepower or area-saturation fire over a target for extended periods of time at night and in adverse weather. The sensor suite consists of thermal, infrared (IR), and side-looking radars. These sensors allow the gunship to visually or electronically identify targets on the ground in the harshest of weather conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe helicopters are ten minutes out: oxygen masks on, depressurize the aircraft, open gun doors, the mission is a go,\u201d the captain announced over the intercom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few feet from my seat, hydraulic arms slowly separated symmetrical sheets of steel from the fuselage of the aircraft to expose firing portals through which the barrels of the 105mm and 25mm cannon would now protrude. Like driving down the highway in a convertible going 200 MPH or standing next to a blast furnace, the roar of the wind was earsplitting and the air too thin to breathe so everyone on board wore fully enclosed aviator helmets with soundproofing insulation, face shields, and oxygen masks through which we talked and breathed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPanther, this is Mantis, we are five minutes out.\u201d \u201cMantis\u201d was the commander of the helicopter raid force. \u201cThis is Panther, we are on station and see no movement or activity in or around the target.\u201d \u201cThis is Mantis, roger, thanks, keep me updated, out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The compound had been under continuous electronic and visual surveillance for the last ninety-six hours. Even though we were confident there were no enemy personnel inside the target we had no way of knowing if there were any nearby. The target sat on the outskirts of Kandahar, which was considered the religious capital of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. U.S. Intelligence had information that numerous terrorist leaders such as UBL, Zawahiri, and Zarqawi were living in and around Kandahar in the months, weeks, and days prior. Yet, without eyes on the ground, we couldn\u2019t confirm or deny whether any of them were there at that time. I guess you could say that the only thing we knew for sure about the area in and around the target was that we didn\u2019t know anything for sure. Which is always the best way to approach the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In front of me were two 13-inch video display terminals. The monitor on my left showed the image from the Infrared (IR) targeting camera, while the monitor on the right showed the image from the Thermal targeting camera. A single joystick allowed me to adjust the direction of the cameras and to zoom in and out. In general, the Infrared image provides better resolution quality, while the Thermal image provides better human detection capability because it works off heat. As an example, if an enemy fighter is hiding behind a wall the IR camera may not detect him but the thermal camera will pick up a glowing red heat signature as his body heat rises up and over the wall like the flames from a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anyone was hiding in or around this target I was determined to find them. It was my purpose. I used a simple scanning method taught to me by one of our snipers and easily recalled using the military march cadence, \u201cleft -right-left.\u201d When it comes to guiding principles and mnemonics, universality is everything. I use the same technique whether I\u2019m searching a target for hidden enemies, searching for cars as I cross the street, or searching my house for my phone. I start on the left side, work my way back to the right and methodically repeat until the entire search area is complete. I scanned every inch in and around the target searching for discrepancies such as movement, discordant shapes, and contrasting colors. Then I rechecked to see if anything changed. I detected nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next to the video screens was my radio control panel. This mission required active monitoring of four different radios: the inter-aircraft communications radio which linked me to the pilot, co-pilot, weapons officer, and crew; two separate satellite radios used by our higher headquarters for command and control; and perhaps the most important radio for my role as LNO, the \u201cfire support\u201d radio. On this mission the \u201cfire support\u201d radio was the only direct link between the two AC-130\u2032s and the guys on the ground conducting the raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Military doctrine reinforces that the more radios you monitor the more overall situational awareness you have. But nothing in life is free and the price you pay for an increase in overall situational awareness is a decrease in situational specifics. \u201cThe human brain is only capable of paying attention to one thing at a time.\u201d <\/i>When you are talking and\/or listening to one radio conversation your brain is incapable of making sense of what\u2019s being said on the others. It\u2019s a biologic fact: if you\u2019re not paying attention to something you cannot comprehend it. Like texting while you\u2019re driving; when you\u2019re texting you\u2019re no longer consciously driving. You are a catastrophe waiting for a contingency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe helicopters are one minute out,\u201d the Captain relayed over the intercom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I \u201czoomed out\u201d my Infrared camera to provide a panoramic view of the target and surrounding area just in time to see the image of the first MH-47 Helicopter float into the picture. In infrared green it looked more like a giant grasshopper then a helicopter as it braked, flared, and crested over the eight-foot-high rock wall that surrounded the compound. As it hovered in preparation to land, its image gradually faded then completely disappeared from view. The dust and debris kicked up by the two massive turbo-powered rotors created blinding brownout conditions so severe that 99.9% of pilots in the world would have had to abort. But these weren\u2019t the 99.9%. These were the 0.1%. Onward they flew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brake, flare, hover, touchdown, disgorge, lift, accelerate and climb. While flying in the blind. Like clockwork, each of the helicopters followed the same routine. Except the last one. Theoretically, you wouldn\u2019t want to be the first helicopter to land on an enemy target during a nighttime raid. However, if the target is empty and you\u2019re dealing with severe brownout conditions you\u2019d much rather be first than last because by the time the last helicopter approaches the target most every un-tethered dust particle in and around the target has already been blown airborne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blinding brownout conditions meant the pilots were 100% dependent on their instruments, and the crew\u2019s eyes, to slowly feel their way forward and down. Speed kills and smooth is fast. In training the pilots take all the time they need. If they don\u2019t \u201cfeel good\u201d about landing in brownout conditions they simply pull up, go around, and try it again. In combat, the enemy always has a vote so there\u2019s rarely any extra time to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To vanquish fear and panic, elite pilots train their brains to focus on the two things they can control\u2014the aircraft and their emotions. In this case, you could actually hear them on the radio as they did both. Speaking in a cool, calm, collected manner is one of the most effective methods of quieting our emotional brains as well as the emotions of everyone else who is listening. \u201cCalm\u201d like \u201ccommon sense\u201d is contagious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook out,\u201d one of the crew members yelled over the radio as the tail boom of the final helicopter clipped the eight-foot-high rock wall then violently whiplashed sideways. In what would turn out to be the first of many examples of heroic airmanship that night, the pilot immediately compensated, steadied, and finessed the wounded but still air-worthy aircraft onto the ground for a hard but upright landing. Out from the back burst the bruised and eternally appreciative operators. I breathed a sigh of relief for them as they planted their feet onto the relative safety and security of enemy-occupied ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mantis called in the code word that confirmed the entire assault force had landed and the raid was underway. While the guys on the ground did CH-47 Heavy Lift Helicopter preparing to land in Afghanistan. Identification their job, I stayed 100% focused on doing mine. I increased my sweeping search pattern in longer left-right-left arcs that stretched one to two kilometers around the target. \u201cNothing seen around target,\u201d I updated Mantis using the fire support radio. But before he could respond to confirm that he heard what I said someone screamed: \u201cEnemy busload of terrorists.\u201d<\/b> The fire support radio went silent for a second. Then it erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast calling station, say again what you said about an enemy bus,\u201d \u201cHow many terrorists are on the bus?\u201d \u201cDid someone say there was more than one bus?\u201d \u201cSay again names of terrorists on the bus?\u201d \u201cLast calling station can you confirm whether there are one or two buses?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Radio traffic flows just like highway traffic. When too many people try to get on the highway at the same time it creates a traffic jam that eventually brings all traffic to a standstill. When too many people try to talk on their radios at the same time it creates a \u201cfrequency jam\u201d that brings all radio traffic to a halt. To make matters worse, someone was intermittingly holding down the \u201cpush-to-talk\u201d button on their radio handset\u2014a phenomenon known as \u201chot mic-ing\u201d that \u201cjams\u201d the entire network. As a result, the communication flow between the AC-130\u2032s and the men on the ground was now 100% gridlocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All I could do was listen intently for the radio traffic jam to clear up so I could attempt to re-establish contact with Mantis. Unfortunately, in situations such as this everyone else was doing the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe busload of terrorists is heading east,\u201d the original caller screamed and once again the radio erupted with calls for additional information and clarification. The sound of the caller\u2019s voice and the fact he didn\u2019t identify himself made me certain the caller wasn\u2019t Mantis, but that didn\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t someone else on his team who might be in contact with the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My priority was the safety and security of the assault force so I rescanned every inch of the only two roads leading into the target. I checked both roads out to five kilometers. I found nothing. \u201cHow could a \u2018busload of terrorists\u2019 appear out of nowhere? And how could I have missed it? Stay calm, think.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have visual on enemy busload of terrorists,\u201d announced the Weapons Officer over the intercom as he took control of the targeting cameras and aligned the crosshairs center-sector on top of the slow moving bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEnemy busload of terrorists? This doesn\u2019t look or sound right?\u201d<\/i> As much as I had to take it seriously to ensure the safety of the assault force, it was an almost comical description when said out loud (in this case to myself inside my helmet). Why would a bunch of terrorists hop on a bus at 0300 local time instead of dispersing into the hills or the surrounding sea of urban sprawl situated a few hundred meters south of the target? It didn\u2019t \u201cmake sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrepare to engage,\u201d the weapons officer directed as the weapons operator loaded a 105mm round in preparation to fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReady to fire,\u201d alerted the weapons operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFire,\u201d responded the weapons officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBoom\u201d began the bombardment. Seven seconds after the concussive boom, I watched on my video screens as the round impacted the ground below. In infrared green the earthen upheaval from the impact looked like a large splash of viscous black ink. The round splashed a hundred or so meters off to the left of the still slow-moving bus. The radio gridlock opened up for a split second and the unidentified caller screamed, \u201cwe got \u2018em now.\u201d A split second later it was back to gridlock. With these the opening shots fired by American forces after 9\/11, it was hard to deny the feeling that the handcuffs were finally off. Most every soldier, sailor, airmen and Marine involved in the initial invasion wanted to do something tangible against the enemy that committed the carnage known as \u201c9\/11.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make no mistake about it, I wanted what we were looking at to really be a \u201cbusload of terrorists\u201d too. After all you don\u2019t stumble on juicy \u201ctargets of opportunity\u201d like a \u201cbusload of terrorists\u201d very often. However, after too many to count \u201cdry holes\u201d and\/or inaccurate intelligence tips over the past ten years, most of us in the Unit had developed what Einstein described as an \u201cincorruptible sense of skepticism.\u201d In this case it was palpable because what I was hearing on the radio and what I was seeing on the ground didn\u2019t \u201cadd up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with my fellow Unit members, we were deployed in combat zones around the world almost continuously during the previous ten years. Experience only matters if you learn from it. Time and feedback teach that \u201cfirst reports are almost always inaccurate, incomplete, or both,\u201d I reminded myself. Why would \u201ca bunch of terrorists\u201d load a bus? Did anyone actually see \u201ca bunch of terrorists\u201d get on this bus? If not, what about this bus makes it an \u201cenemy bus\u201d? There are no machine guns mounted on top of it or any enemy flags painted on the side of it. When dealing with uncertainty it\u2019s common sense to question everything. Instead of seeing a juicy target of opportunity all I saw was a question mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I continued trying to get through to Mantis to make sure he wasn\u2019t trying to get through to me. No luck. The chatter was unrelenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight one hundred,\u201d came the corrective command from the weapons officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept my eyes focused on the bus and my mind focused on the facts: \u201cI know what I saw and this bus could not have come from the target. So where did it come from? Maybe it came from somewhere else in the city,\u201d<\/i> I rationalized, yet the only place we (the U.S.) had surveillance assets focused was the area around the target. \u201cMaybe the bus was so well camouflaged that none of us spotted it until the helicopters spooked them?\u201d Whenever you\u2019re two or more suppositions deep you\u2019re in over your head. No matter how hard I tried I couldn\u2019t make sense of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReady to fire,\u201d announced the weapons operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFire,\u201d the weapons officer instantly responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time the round splashed on the ground two to three hundred meters off to the right of the still slow-moving bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLeft one hundred,\u201d commanded the weapons officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe got it bracketed,\u201d someone screamed excitedly as the bus suddenly skidded to an abrupt and angled stop. Seconds of stillness seemed to stretch into minutes. No one jumped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re fleeing in a bus that\u2019s being bombarded from above and hasn\u2019t been hit, why in the world would you slam on the brakes and turn your \u2018hard to hit\u2019 moving target into a sitting duck? What if they ran out of gas or a piece of shrapnel took out the tires? Both are plausible, but neither makes sense of why the terrorists would stay on the bus? What would I do? I\u2019d get off that bus as quickly as possible and run for cover, which there was plenty of on the boulder encrusted hills that surrounded the road. <\/i>No one got off the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReady to fire,\u201d the weapons operator responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFire,\u201d the weapons officer commanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time I felt the \u201cBoom\u201d of the 105mm howitzer reverberate in my stomach and it didn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d good. From the very first day an operator begins their career at the Unit they\u2019re taught that positive identification of the enemy is a non-negotiable prerequisite for any type of kinetic engagement. \u201cShoot first, ask questions later\u201d only applies to photography. In training, if you inadvertently shot an unarmed or friendly paper target with training ammunition you were admonished on the spot. If it became a pattern over time you were thrown out of the Unit. Killing is easy. Anyone can do it because it only takes one finger\u2014your trigger finger\u2014and you don\u2019t need to think about it. Target discrimination is difficult. It takes knowledge, hundreds of hours of practice, and the ability to pay attention to what\u2019s going on around you. It takes a thinking brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, the rounds landed 200 meters behind the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still no sign of human movement in or around the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s strange,\u201d the pilot slipped over the intercom. \u201cStrange, indeed,\u201d I murmured to myself. To be continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflections\/Lesson Learned<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do our brains \u201cmake sense\u201d of what we perceive? Perception is the process of distilling sensory information into context-specific knowledge of patterns that \u201cmake sense\u201d to our brains. \u201cThe biologic way\u201d our brains are hardwired to perceive the world is explained by the complimentary principles of contrast and coherence. Contrast occurs when our nervous system perceives a discrepancy between what we know\/expect to see (e.g. \u201cno enemy activity around the target\u201d) and the adaptive stimulus of what\u2019s going on around us in the \u201ccontext of the moment\u201d (e.g. \u201cEnemy busload of terrorists? This doesn\u2019t look or sound right?\u201d). When our brains perceive a discrepancy we instinctively expend energy to make it cohere. Why is that? What does that mean? How do we make sense of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The human eye can detect candlelight in pitch-blackness up to 50 km away.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our nervous system is designed to detect contrast in stimulation rather than constancies. Your ability to read the previous sentence is based on the contrast between the dark ink and the white page, if they were both white your brain wouldn\u2019t pay attention because your eyes wouldn\u2019t perceive contrast on the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, when some of the words in this sent_nce are mi_sing letters our brains unconsciously pay attention to the discrepancy between what we perceive (unusual word patterns) and what we know (spelling patterns for common words) and then instinctively expend energy to make the discrepancy cohere. Your pattern recognizing neurons are doing it for every stroke of every letter you read. Unconsciously contrasting what you see on this page with everything you know\u2014you know a lot\u2014and then effortlessly filling in the blanks based on your deeply hardwired kno_ledge of w_rd patterns. Nicely done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term cognitive consistency<\/b> is used to label our biologic need for a consistent, coherent world where things fit together and \u201cmake sense.\u201d When someone screamed \u201cbusload of terrorists,\u201d<\/i> what I heard over the radio didn\u2019t cohere with what I saw on the ground or what I expected to see based on past experiences. When we find ourselves paying attention to something random and\/or have a \u201cbad feeling\u201d about a situation and we\u2019re not sure why, it\u2019s likely because our unconscious brain is trying to alert us to a discrepancy. Don\u2019t dismiss it, pay attention to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is sheer myth to believe that we need merely observe the circumstances of a situation in order to understand them. Patterns do not speak for themselves.<\/b> Only our neocortex can give them voice by paying attention to and thinking about them. How do we pressure test the patterns we perceive to see if they actually \u201cmake sense\u201d? We use one of our ancient ancestors\u2019 most innovative sense-making adaptations: We \u201csay it out loud\u201d so we can see.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arc of human evolution skyrocketed when our species learned to speak. \u201cSaying what we\u2019re thinking out loud\u201d to ourselves and to others is an evolutionary capacity that enables us to put any situation in \u201ccontext of the moment\u201d to see if what we\u2019re thinking actually makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEnemy busload of terrorists?\u201d As much as I had to take it seriously to ensure the safety of the assault force, it was an almost comical description when said out loud (in this case to myself inside my helmet).<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giving voice to what a person is seeing can change their perception of it. Why is seeing and hearing knowledge critical in learning to adapt to it? We can\u2019t fully illuminate our thoughts and ideas unless we translate them to something tangible. Saying what we see, hear, smell, think, or feel out loud makes our thoughts physical. The reason we can record our voices is because sound waves are physically present as compressed air molecules. Although invisible to the naked eye, we can feel air molecules as the wind in our face and as the rock-solid support they provide to the tires on our cars and bikes. By making our thoughts physical we enable additional senses (our own and those around us) to collaborate and pressure test the sense we make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy would a bunch of terrorists hop on a bus at 0300 instead of dispersing into the hills or the surrounding sea of urban sprawl?<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not reality unless it\u2019s shared. <\/b>The brain can only think of one thing at a time, yet our other senses and the senses of the people around us enable us to override this sensory blind spot. When separate elements are seen, heard, and\/or felt together we discover patterns and relationships we may have missed when we thought about them one-dimensionally. By enabling our brains to actually hear, see, and feel what we\u2019re experiencing, we engage more (sensory) brainpower in analyzing and solving the problem and so gain added insights. The more senses we involve the more sense our individual and collective brains can make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How could a \u201cbusload of terrorists\u201d appear out of nowhere? And how could I have missed it? Stay calm, think.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the secret defense against impulsiveness, as well as psychological paralysis, in life or death situations? Talk to yourself and to those around you. Say what you\u2019re thinking and feeling out loud. Remember that your brain is designed to help you survive. A growing body of research has shown that labeling an emotion or describing our feelings with words (\u201cno need to panic\u201d) can help to downregulate the affect and change the way we react to similar situations in the future. In their book, Words Can Change Your Brain, authors Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman write: \u201ca single word or phrase has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.\u201d \u201cStay calm, think.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freedom of speech is the verbal manifestation of freedom of choice. We choose to speak. Saying what we\u2019re thinking and feeling out loud to ourselves and others is how we pressure test what we perceive. It\u2019s how we share knowledge. And it\u2019s how we build a structurally sound \u201cfoundation of knowledge\u201d to better prepare us for whatever the future throws our way. Say it out loud and you\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of technology rendering the need to \u201csay it out loud\u201d obsolete it\u2019s made it absolute.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n