The Rules

Over the years, I started writing things down—not theories, not slogans, not advice. Rules.

They weren’t written all at once, and they weren’t written for publication. Writing a rule was my way of saying, don’t learn this the hard way twice.

Some rules came from intelligence work, where clarity is survival and sentiment gets people killed. Others came from life—marriage, parenthood, loss, failure, recovery, and the slow realization that experience is only useful if it’s distilled.

These rules aren’t meant to be memorized. They’re meant to be recognized—usually after you’ve already violated one.

They fall into two broad families:

–Rules of Intelligence Operations — hard-earned principles from decades in environments where mistakes had consequences.

–Rules for Life — observations accumulated the long way, covering work, relationships, judgment, resilience, and curiosity.

You don’t need to agree with them.
You should consider them before you ignore them.

Rick’s Rules: Intelligence Operations

  • Intelligence is only trivia until you get it to someone who needs it in a format they can use.
    • Knowledge isn’t power. Delivered knowledge is.
  • YOU don’t matter. The MISSION matters.
    • Ego is expensive. Purpose is efficient.
  • If you think you are in the top 10% of people in your field, remember that scum floats.
    • Confidence is useful. Self-deception is lethal.
  • If you NEED a weapon to do your job, you’re in the wrong field.
    • Judgment beats firepower every time.
  • Keep it zipped.
    • Loose talk isn’t brave. It’s lazy. Loose zippers isn’t manly, it’s a vulnerability waiting to happen.
  • There’s an 18-year-old on patrol who relies on your judgment.
    • Your bad decision rarely hurts only you.
  • In the end, all sources and source handlers are expendable.
    • Harsh truth: the mission outlives individuals. Pretending otherwise gets people killed.
  • It’s not what you wear; it’s who you are that’s important.
    • Symbols don’t substitute for substance.
  • If you don’t have time to do it right, you sure as hell don’t have time to do it over.
    • Shortcuts are just delayed failures.
  • A source is a tool. Sane people don’t fall in love with tools.
    • Emotional attachment clouds judgment. Clouded judgment ends badly.
  • As soon as you know you are infallible, the world will try to kill you.
    • Certainty invites correction—usually violently.
  • Revenge is stupid; justice is sublime.
    • One corrodes you. The other outlives you.
  • If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
    • Patterns don’t break themselves.
  • Intelligence is not a force multiplier; intelligence is survival in its most brutal form.
    • It doesn’t make things easier. It makes them possible.
  • If someone is bound and determined to make a fool out of themselves, you owe it to them—as a matter of common courtesy—to get out of the way.
    • Interference only makes it your problem.

These are one branch of a larger system. The Rules for Life will follow.