See It Like Jones Would: The Mysterious Case of the ‘Engine-Stopping Rays’
In Most Secret War, Dr. R. V. Jones discusses the human tendency to “conjure up fear under conditions of stress,”1 a tendency the modern Westerner—stalked by fears of terrorism, crime, and economic...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: Understanding the Adversary’s Metrics
In this anecdote from Most Secret War, the immediate takeaway appears to be the utility of deception. Looking closer, however, we can see that the success of the deception hinged on R. V. Jones’...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: The Power of Tradition
This post differs from the earlier “Jones” posts; in those I focused on Jones’ ability to see a problem differently or employ a clever stratagem. In this post, I simply want to share a couple of...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: Too Little Too Soon
We’ve all heard about the “too little too late” pitfall. Jones reminds us that “too little too soon” can also become a problem. In his postscript to the legendary “Battle of the Beams,” Jones...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: The Power of Authentic Confidence
During the latter part of the war, British intelligence struggled with the growing threat of German rockets. As new and sometimes contradictory information emerged, R. V. Jones and his colleagues...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: Rocket FUD
In the spirit of the last “Jones” post, I’d like to revisit his narrative on the V-2. One of the key questions Jones and his colleagues struggled with was the size of the rocket and the rocket’s...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: The Value of ‘Hierarchical Attenuation’
In Reflections on Intelligence, R. V. Jones briefly reviews the British decision to adopt a convoy system during World War I. The case brings to light two useful insights: (1) know your data’s heritage...
View Article“See It Like Jones Would”
We’ve collected the “See It Like Jones Would” posts on a single page. We will add new Jones essays to the page periodically. In the meantime, they’re always worth another read!
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: Trust and Time
During the World War II “Battle of the Beams,” the Germans introduced a series of beam-based guidance systems for their bombers, which the British in turn attempted to counter. The third in the series...
View ArticleSee It Like Jones Would: The J-Switch Talisman
When flying over occupied Europe in 1941, many British bomber pilots left their I.F.F. (identification, friend or foe) transponders on, believing that the signals jammed the German radar-guided...
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