Talk:About the Book
From The Starfish and the Spider
ricelc c4tc4tp I suggest that the title "The Starfish versus the Spider" will be changed in "Let others work for you", because that is in my view the basic principle of the Starfish organization success. You create a platform and let others fill it in. You, being the creator, get the rewards of the work of other people. By the way, the principle is not new. Smart rulers have always applied this principle. You organize a contest between people and without them knowing it you are calling the shots. It is called "divide and rule". Remember the Roman expression "divide et impera". So whats new?
Johannes Vervloed, Paris
As a military officer, I am fascinated by the premise, and in someways horrified by the implications as I see the analogy the author's make to Al Qaeda, as well as other terrorist organizations that now span the planet. Couple their ideology, with religious zealotry that relies on Jihad to further it's reach and evangelize, and you have an amorphous asymetric threat that is difficult to squash. Nation states are not inherently well suited to this type conflict unless they have the moral strength and courage to see the struggle through, no matter how long it takes and regardless of the internal and external political and social pressures they face urging them to cut-and-run. Only by slowly dealing with the nations and peoples of the Middle East, and the Islamic states of the Pacific Rim and Indian Ocean by changing the cultural mindset and desires of individual hearts can succeed against this self-replicating threat. "The Starfish and the Spider" is an outstanding read, and I hope a concept that the various US service War Colleges are now incorporating in their advanced studies.
R. Rivera Washington, DC
The power of the hybrid organization fascinates me. I would like to see a follow-up book written on just that. Leaderless organizations (sorry Johannes, you just don't get it), morphing to their local needs to reach universal goals is anarchistic to a degree, but when coupled with the strategizing possible through "patriotic" communications to share through the network (in our age, the internet) the most effective means to reach the coordinated ends, the sense of unity and pride to produce quality outcomes is unsurpassed! The problem is getting "spider" organizations to crawl out of their comfortable and protective exoskeleton to intentionally be exposed to the inevitable fisherman's knife as a starfish. Indeed- that is the catalyst to the unstoppability!
J. Ruschhaupt, San Francisco, CA
