Henry, theres something I would like to tell you, for what its worth, something I wish I had been told years ago. Youve been a consultant for a long time, and youve dealt a great deal with top secret information. But youre about to receive a whole slew of special clearances, maybe fifteen or twenty of them, that are higher than top secret.Ive had a number of these myself, and Ive known other people who have just acquired them, and I have a pretty good sense of what the effects of receiving these clearances are on a person who didnt previously know they even existed. And the effects of reading the information that they will make available to you.First, youll be exhilarated by some of this new information, and by having it allso much! incredible!suddenly available to you. But second, almost as fast, you will feel like a fool for having studied, written, talked about these subjects, criticized and analyzed decisions made by presidents for years without having known of the existence of all this information, which presidents and others had and you didnt, and which must have influenced their decisions in ways you couldnt even guess. In particular, youll feel foolish for having literally rubbed shoulders for over a decade with some officials and consultants who did have access to all this information you didnt know about and didnt know they had, and youll be stunned that they kept that secret from you so well.You will feel like a fool, and that will last for about two weeks. Then, after youve started reading all this daily intelligence input and become used to using what amounts to whole libraries of hidden information, which is much more closely held than mere top secret data, you will forget there ever was a time when you didnt have it, and youll be aware only of the fact that you have it now and most others dont and that all those other people are fools.Over a longer period of timenot too long, but a matter of two or three yearsyoull eventually become aware of the limitations of this information. There is a great deal that it doesnt tell you, its often inaccurate, and it can lead you astray just as much as the New York Times can. But that takes a while to learn.In the meantime it will have become very hard for you to learn from anybody who doesnt have these clearances. Because youll be thinking as you listen to them: What would this man be telling me if he knew what I know? Would he be giving me the same advice, or would it totally change his predictions and recommendations? And that mental exercise is so torturous that after a while you give it up and just stop listening. Ive seen this with my superiors, my colleagues and with myself.You will deal with a person who doesnt have those clearances only from the point of view of what you want him to believe and what impression you want him to go away with, since youll have to lie carefully to him about what you know. In effect, you will have to manipulate him. Youll give up trying to assess what he has to say. The danger is, youll become something like a moron. Youll become incapable of learning from most people in the world, no matter how much experience they may have in their particular areas that may be much greater than yours.