Comments on: Clausewitz, “On War”, Book 1: Jason Bourne and ‘friction’

By: Nathaniel T. Lauterbach

Nathaniel T. Lauterbach — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:31:03 +0000

This is a solid little post.

I think it’s interesting that CvC notes that often the biggest sources of friction come not from enemy action, but rather from the army itself. Kotare mentioned that often people hanker for new systems to deal with friction, but he rightly points out that such systems only increase the level of complexity, and consequently increase friction (probably because friction is equal parts chance and entropy).

What people should hanker for instead is this: The KISS Principle! Keep It Simple, Stupid!

By: SFC SKI

SFC SKI — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:42:43 +0000

IN my military experience, I have seen my own plans and the plans of others shot down because they were planned for the “best case scenario”, ie, everything will go exactly right. It doesn’t take long before you realize that you have to plan for the worst and accept the risks you can’t plan away.

I’m always amazed when I read of events that came to pass, and hindsight and analysis reveals that the planners were assuming the “best case scenario” would occur.

By: david foster

david foster — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:17:57 +0000

People who have spent their careers in “staff” positions generally have much less understanding of friction than people who have been in “line” jobs. By “staff,” I mean here a job in which one analyzes, advises, and recommends, but does not have direct decision-making responsibility or accountability for outcomes.

In our society as a whole, the ratio of staff to line people seems to have greatly increased, and these staff people seem to have less and less understanding or empathy for the frictions and other issues faced by line people.

By: zenpundit

zenpundit — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:18:18 +0000

Friction is a marvelous concept, one of Clausewitz’s greatest metaphors. Systems thinking as most ppl practice it, by and large, while highly useful at enlarging the mental map of relevant variables tends to forget or at least underestimate the amount of friction present at any given moment, especially in “soft systems” composed of human beings.

By: david foster

david foster — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:44:10 +0000

Tom Peters has written about the importance of resilience in business. His post reminded me of something by Field Marshal Lord Wavell.

After commenting on the British practice of testing military equipment by dropping it off a tower and then burying it in the mud for a few days, he continues:

Now the mind of the general in war is buried, not merely for 48 hours but for days and weeks, in the mud and sand of unreliable information and uncertain factors, and may at any time receive, from an unsuspected move of the enemy, an unforseen accident, or a treaherous turn in the weather, a bump equivalent to a drop of at least a hundred feet on to something hard. Delicate mechanism is of little use in war; and this applies to the mind of the commander as well as his body; to the spirit of an army as well as to the weapons and instruments with which it is equipped.

By: Cheryl Rofer

Cheryl Rofer — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:55:40 +0000

Ah! I was going to say something very similar: Anyone who has done anything has experienced friction. Undoubtedly it is worse in war.

T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men:

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow…

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:59:47 +0000

All true.

When you “go live” with anything, you encounter friction. You are in a rock band. You have rehearsed for several weeks. An amplifier that has worked innocuously fine in practice breaks. You are going to do a presentation you have rehearsed several times. The board you have made unaccountably gets a magic marker smear on it. This stuff happens all the time under increased stress and where the severity of the outcome is particularly extreme. You are going to make a closing argument to the jury and the lapel of the suit you are going to wear is stained.

So, yeah, everyone should know about friction.

Amd Clausewitz’s lesson is that in wartime, this phenomenon is way, way worse, and lives are at stake.