intelligence is absolutely the most important way to spend your time right now. More important than medical, more important than communications, more important than tactical. At least in the beginning, everyone needs to begin with the work of intelligence and I’ll tell you why.

By front loading all these skills before intelligence, in a worst-case scenario you’re going to be reacting to threats that you don’t understand or don’t know about. If you’re going to prepare a defense, wouldn’t it first be prudent to understand what threats were most or more likely, and which were least or less likely?

Samuel Culper is the Director of Forward Observer and the SHTF Intelligence Center. He was an Army and contract Intelligence analyst with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the author of SHTF Intelligence: An Intelligence Analyst’s Guide to Community Security.