A Spy's Guide to Strategy

By: John Braddock

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

When you're a spy, you see a lot of strategies. It's your job to see grand strategies. Regional strategies. National strategies. Most of all, individual strategies. It's your job to see them and to understand them, because that's how you know when threats exist. To identify threats, you're infiltrating an enemy's organization. You're figuring out who is making decisions. And who isn't. You're collecting intelligence on what they know. And what they don't know. You're figuring out their plans. Whether they mean you harm or don't. Whether they're a threat. Whether they're going to attack. Hopefully, before it's done. You're uncovering the enemy's strategy. That's the job of a spy. But it's not only enemies' strategies you see. You're also talking to allies who have strategies of their own. You're understanding what they want. What they don't. Hopefully, they'll tell you what their strategy is. But sometimes, they don't. Then, there's your side's strategy. Your side's strategy is why you're a spy. It's why they send you to foreign countries and back alleys and diplomatic receptions. You're there to serve your side's strategy. When you're a spy, you have a front row seat to a lot of strategies. Which means you see some strategies succeed. And you see many more strategies fail. Sometimes, a strategy fails because of logistics. Or because the enemy strikes first. Or because the strategy was overtaken by events. Or because it was made obsolete by inaction. But most strategies fail earlier. Most strategies fail before a conflict starts. Most strategies fail before an alliance is formed. Before even war is declared. Most strategies fail because they're made the wrong way.

©2017 John Braddock (P)2017 John Braddock

Reasonably good, short but could have been shorter

I did enjoy the narration. I listen to a lot of business and self improvement books and assumed this was in that genre, but is isn’t. This is actually suppose to be about real ‘spy’ strategic thinking. It still applies to business thinking, so I am happy enough with it, but it could have been cut in half or even less and still have presented the same key ideas. Reason backward multiple levels to understand why you are where you are, reason forward based on your desired end goal (start at the goal, reason backward to your current position to see how to get to your goal). You also have to understand the motivations of your ‘opponent’ to anticipate their actions/reactions. All basic stuff, but a good reminder presented in an interesting manner.

Enjoyable but very content light. Like an episode of a podcast.

Like a lot of other reviewers noted, the content was very enjoyable and interesting, but extremely repetitive and just too little to be called a “book”. It’s more like a single episode of a podcast, rather than a book, per se... I don’t feel cheated because I was able to buy this on an audible sale, but if I had paid full price or used a full credit, I definitely would have been upset.

I also agree with many who said it sounded like he’s trying to hit a minimum word count sometimes, as he has maybe 2 or 3 main key learning points only, and essentially repeats these over and over throughout the “book”. Saying that, I am obsessed with spies, so I still really enjoyed hearing a bit of the strategies they employ, even though he was not extremely descriptive/explicit in relaying his anecdotal stories (I suppose for confidentiality reasons) and so seemed to stopped just shy of the satisfaction point (maybe for me personally).

Really interesting part about the strategy Bin Laden used in masterminding 9/11, and on what four fronts he plotted to disrupt and weaken the US-Arab alliance. I personally lived through 9/11 in NYC and have heard many (fairly compelling) conspiracy theories regarding those events that point the finger at the US government’s scheming, rather than Al-Qaeda’s, so it was very interesting to hear an insider‘s view of the over-arching strategy and why this particular act of terror fit the bill precisely for Bin Laden‘s “endgame” objectives. Makes more sense now (if an event filled with such meaningless horror and death is even possible to make “sense” of.)

Overall, interesting enough content that my curiosity is piqued to read more of his books…if they’re on sale. :)

Not really a guide

I enjoyed the book overall. This really isn’t a guide on strategy development and the useful information is really obvious. The stories are interesting and it’s an overall fun book to read anyway.

Very practical

This is a very practical strategy guide. I find it very interesting relative to other guides and it’s especially useful to think about game planning other people’s end game and how it interacts with yours.

Useful for thinking

It was a good book with a great topic and useful information, although the style is a bit tricky.

GREAT Book

Learned a few things from listening that will come in handy in life.
enjoyed listening

A fascinating study in...

A fascinating study in logic, reason and strategy. The difference between this and other approaches on this topic, is these are the reasonings of those who put their lives on the line based on the conclusions drawn. The application of these principles have real world potential even for us non-cloak and dagger types.
Disclaimer: If you are put off by a staccato style of writing and delivery, then find an easier listen. But if content trumps style, jump into the thoughts of a spy and prepare to learn.

Excellent Companion to Kindle Book

Kevin Pierce is my favorite Audible narrator. This short book works well written or spoken. I like this as much as a Spy's Guide to Thinking. Definitely get the Kindle book because a lot of the information is visual. I loved this book when it came out on the Kindle and the Audible version does not disappoint.

The scripting is excellent either spoken or read. Very in depth and entertaining which makes it easy to master the material. Whispersync makes having the Audible and Kindle versions much better than having either alone.

Really great read, highly recommended !

Loved the narrative, anecdotes, deduction and the breakdown of the process of tradecraft strategy. Gives the reader a informative insight of modern day espionage.

A good refresher on why strategy matters

A good refresher on why strategy matters and what is and isn't strategy. I particularly appreciated the Boss Strategy portion.