Human ingenuity can be defined as a person's ability to think through processes and devise systems to improvise, adapt and overcome. It indicates that when you are presented with a problem you can devise a solution. 

​

There are many examples of human ingenuity in every aspect of our daily lives. People also use this ability to stay under the radar of the law. Smugglers dig under walls and build elaborate systems to travel back and forth. They use unmanned vessels to transport illegal products in the oceans. Drones have flown drugs over prison walls and provide a new way for terrorists to surgically strike targets without the use of suicide bombers.  

 

Worldwide culture is harnessing human ingenuity to decentralize the globe. Bitcoin and Crypto currencies provide a way to circumvent centralized banks. However, this increased ability to individualize has created a new threat to nations. Small groups that needed the power of a nation to launch cyber attacks in the past, are now capable of completing such attacks themselves.

 

Another example of human ingenuity at work in the military intelligence community happened in the 1980s. A Soviet Counter Intelligence Analyst studied the files of known or suspected CIA assets in the Soviet Union. He built a matrix of indicators to detect CIA activity. This led to an exposure of agents throughout the Soviet Union.

 

Necessity causes ingenuity to happen. When humans are faced with problems it causes them to think of solutions. When our lives or the life of our loved ones are on the line we tend to stretch even farther out the box to develop a solution. 

 

However, many times we fall back to our level of training. If you haven't been exposed to the stresses of a given situation it is hard to develop a creative solution. The body actually has three responses to stress: fight, flight or freeze. Usually people freeze when they are overwhelmed by a new situation. You need to have exposure, experience, and information to be really ingenious. 

 

It is imperative that you start practicing being exposed to these stresses now. Adversity will show you what you are made of and you will gain confidence so your brain functions under stress. A great way to simulate this stress is to wait until a major event happens, for example the Furgessen Riots. Data mine Twitter, the radio, the news, social media and all open source material. Then sit down with a map of the area and try to plot the details on the map. Try to keep your map updated to real time. This will give you some great real world experience.

 

The advantage goes to the most informed and ingenious thinkers. Your enemy gets a vote in any war or conflict. If they are more ingenious, they will have a tactical advantage. Advantages stack up in any conflict. "When change on the outside is happening faster than change on the inside the end is in sight." (Quote by Jack Welsh) You have to plan well in advance. If you can't keep pace with what is happening outside your door, you're going to lose. Having an information advantage provides you with an early warning system. In order to be creative you need to be a subject matter expert. To make forward thinking decisions you need good information. If you don't have this information, you will have an intelligence gap. Gaps are exploitable and can put you in great risk.