What's that, the CIA giving the public a free peek into how they train their agents? That's right, the CIA
has released its 1999 book "Psychology of Intelligence Analysis" online. Anyone can read it free, and it's in regular text format (no Acrobat Reader required).
It's intriguing to open up a random chapter to find out about estimating probabilities, for instance. The text is heavy on psychology verbiage (obviously) so the theories might not be for anyone...especially those who get caught up in Tom Clancy and think every CIA agent is an uber-super hero.
The
conclusion is particularly valuable, offering advice such as:
Collect information to evaluate all the reasonable hypotheses, not just the one that seems most likely. Exploring alternative hypotheses that have not been seriously considered before often leads an analyst into unexpected and unfamiliar territory.
Find out what CIA agents like to learn about intelligence analysis by clicking
here.
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