Mark Bowden’s article The Professor of War describes the life of David Patraeus, the General recently shamed for having an affair with his biographer. It was written back in 2010 before this scandal got the better of him.
I didn’t know much about Patraeus before the gossip mill exploded; it seems he’s an incredibly competent guy (which is a great comfort to me, given his rank). My ego can usually cope with competent people doing better than me, but then I read this passage:
He approached his academic sojourn with military efficiency. Scrutinizing the requirements for master’s and Ph.D. degrees, he discovered that he could, by doubling and tripling up on the work, complete both in a third of the normal time.
Despite being one of the hardest, fittest, most powerful and competent men on the planet, he also humbled me academically. It seems silly to toss someone of this calibre aside for an indiscretion in his private life.