Breadth matters, even in war
On slide rules, gray zones, and why it's just as good for a military officer to be well-rounded as it is for an engineer
There was a time when being the quickest with a slide rule might have made one the most sought-after engineer in town. Slide rules aren’t easy to master, but there were those who, at the extreme edges of the skill, could rival the computational speed of an electronic calculator.
■ Today, there is novelty in being able to operate a slide rule, and there can even be some isolated cases in which the skill might prove itself handy, but it’s not in any way a necessary modern engineering skill. It’s probably good for an engineering student to understand conceptually what makes the slide rule work, but it’s no longer a necessary skill nor a good screening mechanism for identifying high performers.
■ Instead of practicing the slide rule, a good engineer today would be better served by spending time learning contemporary skills (like how to apply spreadsheet formulas or operate modeling software) and by developing foundational skills in related areas, like economics, human factors, public administration, accounting, and even law. No domain of knowledge is an island unto itself; most people need to know about at least a few fields adjacent to their own.
■ Well-roundedness isn’t just an abstract virtue. It’s what permits people to anticipate consequences of their actions and to communicate across domains in order to secure desirable results not just immediately and on the first order, but for the long term and multiple steps removed from the original action.
■ This is what makes the current hostility to educational breadth in the military such a troubling and short-sighted error. Chest-thumping about “lethality” may be red meat for some light-thinking audiences, but caring only about the number of dead bodies that pile up is like caring only about how fast someone can work a slide rule.
■ Particularly in the emerging era of gray-zone conflict, lasting national security is about much more than just the kinetic damage a country can do. Deterrence, logistical sustainability, counterinsurgency, and a thousand other factors can be equally important. Thinking soldiers are a threat to nobody but their enemies. The incurious and unimaginative ones are a hazard to their own side.