Bleeding Talent: How the US Military Mismanages Great Leaders and Why It's Time for a Revolution

Almost all of the operations of the G-1 and HRC are subject to laws and requirements passed by Congress, so their room for innovation and change is essentially outlawed. In other words, even if the central planners know that the central planning is a failure, they can’t change it.

in the modern military the cream of the crop tend to leave fastest.

no other work grants its members the status of protecting the tribe’s core identity that soldiering does. This is why in all civilizations—feudal Japan, imperial Rome, modern America—the warrior class is usually afforded the highest status, while merchants are considered the lowest. And warriors in America, like most civilizations, can achieve this

the “market versus military” dichotomy is a false contrast. Instead, we should have in mind a model of individual motivations, such that all individuals are motivated by a mix of dimensions including money, service, risk, opportunity, and so on.

Evaluations in the military, unfortunately, have become formal exercises in documenting excellence across the board.

Boot warns: “Successful adaptation to major technological shifts requires changing the kinds of people who are rewarded within a military culture.”9 A corollary is that the major branches of the US armed forces should be focused on missions, not preserving platforms and old hierarchies.

“Human Capital [management] is the most important, yet the least agile system.

he is most famous for a massive briefing called the “Patterns of Conflict,” which lays out his OODA loop theory in air conflicts. OODA stands for observe, orient, decide and act, meaning that with two adversaries of any size, whether armies or individuals, the victor almost always has a tighter OODA loop and can exploit the lag in his slower oppone

the unresolved dysfunction in the personnel system is likely to get worse if the armed forces use force-shaping techniques based on seniority instead of merit.