instructions gathered into official manuals and into other
professional writings, or in the commander's own practical experience.
Logicians who have investigated this natural process point out that
suggested solutions are the resurrection of ideas from past
experience. Good thinking demands access to a large storehouse of
ideas connected in various and flexible ways. The best available
knowledge is the main source from which reflective thinking obtains
relevant and promising suggestions for a solution.

By such resort to analogy, the commander utilizes the accumulations of
past experience. Sometimes he finds that the courses of action thus
suggested are exactly suitable as tentative solutions for his problem.
In other instances, of course, only parts of the present situation are
found to be analogous to those previously encountered. Even then,
however, the similarity of the facts may be helpful in providing
suggestions. Guidance based on limited or partial similarity has been
demonstrated to be better than purely intuitive thinking.

The commander cannot be content, however, to depend wholly on the
guidance of the past. Sometimes, moreover, he may not be able to
obtain suggestions by analogy. New suggestions, ideas not drawn from
past experience, are very desirable; they are possible, also, in the
sense that the result of the analysis of past experience may be
reassembled, in imagination, in novel ways. New courses of action,
overlooked in the past, may be contrived. Original combinations, not
previously entertained, may be devised. Readiness to employ the novel
and the new, as well as to utilize the old, is a prime qualification
for command.

Reflective thinking of this nature requires adequate knowledge of the
capabilities of weapons, so that new possibilities may be perceived as
to coordination in their use. While analogy looks backward to find
applicable lessons, the search for novelty seeks suggestions from
potentialities not heretofore utilized.

The development of the full possibilities of new weapons is an
important source of forward thinking. Such thinking constantly
integrates the current developments in war. The competent commander
does not wait for history to be made; he makes it.

Familiarity with experimentation, research, and new performance is
also a fruitful source of suggestions. When used, this method results
in advance demands by the armed forces for new weapons not yet
supplied.

Closely all