What economics and entrepreneurship can teach us about the acquisition process
Here are excerpts from a great lecture by Israel Kirzner on Economics and Entrepreneurship which focuses on economists Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. While […]
Economics
How the arc of American business history frames defense acquisition
The Pentagon and defense contractors are wrapped up in a broader macroeconomic arc that is crucial for understanding where DoD is today. Rise of the […]
Founder vs. Inheritance and other deep problems of DoD innovation
Here are some slices from an epic podcast with Balaji Srinivasan and Lex Fridman: How to Fix Government, Twitter, Science, and the FDA. The US […]
Acquisition must align with individual responsibility, not program lifecycles
Jumping off yesterday’s post on a mixed strategy for acquisition, Arnold Kling argues in a different post that most people, including economists, see the success […]
A mixed strategy for acquisition processes
Here is an interesting blog post from Arnold Kling on why natural selection in nature and human society always prefers heterogeneity: One question that I […]
Venture Capital takes advantage of power-law distribution, should the Department of Defense?
Here is venture investor Steve Kim on data-driven insights from the Venture Stories podcast. We model that 30% of the startups that we invest in […]
Middle Tier of Acquisition and what types of decisions merit going fast
Here are some slices from Annie Duke, world series of poker legend, discussing her new book on the a16z podcast, “How to Decide.” … we […]
Gresham’s Law of Programming
Here’s a slice from the excellent Mark Mandeles’ book, The Development of the B-52 and Jet Propulsion. Between 1919 and 1926, the technical staff at […]
VC funding for defense & aerospace hits $10B in 2021
Here’s an excerpt from the Economist article, Can tech reshape the Pentagon? VC funding for American aerospace and defence startups tripled between 2019 and 2021, […]
Accountability and authority in project management
Here’s an interesting discussion from economist and entrepreneur Arnold Kling: Accountability and authority ought to be proportional to one another. If you have authority without […]
What could be the impact of reducing industry’s progress payment rates?
Circling back to Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting John Tenaglia’s talk at the Pricing Summit, he mentioned one of the big questions he often […]
Inflation expectations and the impact on defense contractors
Here’s Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting John Tenaglia at giving a keynote address at the Pricing Summit: At the heart of the memo is […]
How the China narrative may be changing
Right now, there’s this strong narrative that China’s government can do no wrong. China is unstoppable juggernaut. This view is about eight years out of […]
SpaceX’s platform-based strategy beats bespoke requirements
Bent Flyvgjberg and Atif Ansar have a new article providing evidence that SpaceX projects outperform historical and contemporary competitors by using a platform approach. The […]
Advanced material buys to accelerate missile production
Here’s a conversation with John Norman, VP at Raytheon of USAF airpower requirements and capability and former USAF major general, on the Aerospace Advantage podcast. […]