The Friday Formation

23 January 2026

🪖 The Friday Formation

This week’s dispatch on Army writing, leadership, and learning from every front
23 January 2026

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🗓️ Editor’s Note

By late January, the initial energy of the new year has faded, and habits begin to reveal themselves. This is where curiosity matters most. Not curiosity as distraction, but curiosity as discipline. The kind that asks better questions, seeks uncomfortable perspectives, and resists easy answers.

This week’s readings span leadership, autonomous systems, doctrine, and professional development, but they share a common theme: progress depends on how willing we are to question assumptions before circumstances force us to. Curiosity opens doors. Judgment determines what we do once we step through them.

If I missed something that should be part of this week’s conversation, send it my way. The profession sharpens itself through dialogue.

Chris

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⚔️ Warfighting

• Open Doors, Hidden Worlds: The Power of Curiosity
  Host: Joe Byerly; Guest: Brad Meltzer (From the Green Notebook Podcast)
  A conversation on curiosity as a leadership skill and catalyst for lifelong learning.

• Twenty Years in Fourteen Lines – Joe Byerly
  A concise reflection on service, time, and what remains after decades of experience.

• Timeless Leadership, Timely Expertise – Shane R. Reeves
  Argues that enduring leadership principles must be paired with relevant expertise.

• Chaos as Condition, Order as Achievement – J. William DeMarco
  Challenges assumptions about stability and control in modern interventions.

• Own the Night or Die – John Spencer
  A blunt assessment of night fighting, adaptation, and battlefield dominance.

• Route Clearance and Counterbattery in Iraq
  Host: Charles Faint; Guest: JJ Pinter (The Spear Podcast)
  Lessons from operational experience under persistent threat.

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🔧 Delivering Ready Combat Power

• Can the 15th Five-Year Plan Fix the PLA’s Procurement Bottlenecks?
  Jessica C. Liao and Joshua Arostegui
  An examination of structural limits within China’s defense acquisition system.

• A Human-Centric Framework for Lethal Autonomous Weapons
  Brennan Deveraux
  Proposes principles to ensure meaningful human judgment in autonomous systems.

• A Long, Hard Year: Russia-Ukraine War Lessons Learned 2023
  John A. Nagl and Michael T. Hackett
  Operational and strategic lessons from sustained conflict.

• The 2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA’s Protracted War
  Joshua Arostegui
  Key insights on long-term competition and Chinese military strategy.

• LOGSTAT: Design, Develop, Deliver, Dominate
  Host: CPT Garett Pyle; Guests: MAJ Jessica Gattison, MAJ Tim Hancock, MSG Vladislav Dobin, SSG Summer McMahon
  A discussion on acquisition, logistics, and sustaining readiness.

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🔄 Continuous Transformation

• GenAI – Crispin Burke
  Explores implications of generative AI for conflict and decision-making.

• Drawing the Digital Line – Jadyn Ocampo
  Examines boundaries and escalation in digital conflict.

• An Opportunity for Success – Scott Rutter
  Identifies inflection points for strategic advantage.

• Soviet Military Doctrine – Julian McBride
  Historical context with modern relevance.

• The Kurds – Pasar Sherko Abdullah
  A regional case study in persistence and adaptation.

• Why Security Cooperation Must Address Disaster Response
  Corey Broschak and Alexander Noyes
  Argues for broader definitions of readiness and partnership.

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📜 Strengthening the Profession of Arms

• Book Reflection as a Habit – Josh Bowen
  Why reflection turns reading into development.

• Difficult Conversations
  Golba, Deller, Hotze, Fite, Sanders, and Walters
  Research-based guidance on leading through friction.

• Enlisted Education – SGM Randall Austin
  A look at professional growth across the enlisted force.

• The First Sergeant’s Edge – 1SG Timothy Hardy Jr.
  Leadership at the point of execution.

• Discipline Saves More Lives Than Marksmanship – CSM James L. Light
  A reminder of fundamentals under pressure.

• Are You My Mentor? – COL Andy Morgado
  Reframing how developmental relationships actually form.

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📖 Resources & Calls

• CSA Recommended Articles – Army University Press – The Chief’s reading list.

• Call for Papers – Army Civilian Journal - Invitation to contribute.

• Professional Writing Playlist (YouTube) – Talks and discussions on military writing.

• Professional Military Writing – Military Review – Why writing matters.

🧰 TL;DR

Quick Read: Twenty Years in Fourteen Lines
Deep Dive: Chaos as Condition, Order as Achievement
Listen: Open Doors, Hidden Worlds

🧭 About the Harding Project

The Harding Project is Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George’s initiative to strengthen the profession through professional writing and public discourse.

The one-stop shop for all branch journal articles is the Line of Departure website – check it out to get your daily dose of Army professional development! If you have good ideas or lessons to share with the rest of the force, please pen them and send them our way at submissions@hardingproject.com.

We’re renewing professional writing across the force—one Friday at a time. Read. Reflect. Act. The profession doesn’t stand still, and neither should we.