My new commute has afforded me the opportunity to catch up on some reading. One book I'm running through right now is "Wars of Blood and Faith", a collection of articles by Ralph Peters.
WARNING: Mr Peters is retired Army so espouses a *very* pro-military viewpoint - you've been warned. I've included the link for context.
In the article "
Plan B for Iraq", published in Armed Forces Journal, he says this:
"We must not only prepare for the worst, but calculate how to turn it to our advantage."
This struck a chord with me. I've heard the saying "Plan for the best and prepare for the worst" many times. However, in practice, I've mostly seen folks do the former and ignore the latter (cant? or wont?). Of course, in context, Peters' statement reflects the seriousness of the truly life and death decisions our military face in the field. In the software development world, we don't have quite the same consequences.
But, it seems this view can be quite useful - what happens after things didn't work out the way you wanted them to? Take the outcome and work it to your advantage. Seems easy. But, in practice...
Ciao.
