"You can NOT defeat these groups by killing lots of their members. In fact, they want you to do that."
I'm not sure that's a universal truth. It's certainly true that is is very difficult to defeat a guerrilla army simply by killing the soldiers. I'm sure there's a breaking point where supporters start to reconsider becoming active members due to the high probability of being killed. And yes, the guerrilla leadership will use each killing as a rallying point for gaining support. But the guerrillas would still prefer to achieve their ends without getting killed in the process - if for no other reason to increase the number of notches in their AKs.
This assumes that the purpose of the conflict is not to sustain the conflict. There are times and places where low-level wars are fought simply so the people in power can remain in power.
You might be right that it's not an absolute law, but given a guerrilla group's ability to use civillians as defensive blockades and how there's an inverse correlation between wealth and birthrate, it becomes even less likely you could kill enough guerrillas to get the effect you describe.
I may not like war-nerds politics, but his facts and opinions seem pretty right on.
K-I used to stratigize my T commute liket that too. The longer the ride, the better to have a seat. If running late, pick a car that you know opens near the station exit. I recall the Aquarium Station on the blue line had the exit at the end of the train, so you had a 5 car walk to the stairs if you were in the front. A long walk in the morning rush. I really miss the subway muscians...sigh.
I did the same thing in my T-ing. At Wellington, I found the the inbound trains had nearly empty cars at the front, far from the entrance stairs. So I would spend my time waiting on the platform to walk all the way up to the far end, thus getting a good car. This works pretty well at Porter and Davis too. Less so as Harvard where there are multiple entrances that lead people farther down the platform.
I don't consider it overthinking at all. If you're not optimizing every part of your life (commute especially), you're just wasting time and energy.
Well, yeah, I guess that was sort of an apology for thinking it worth writing about... also, maybe I shouldn't have even told about that little corner with the shelf I love so much ;-)
Where was the Wellington T-stop again? Nowadays, when I see Wellington mentioned as a stop, I think of the "L" brown line Wellington stop.
My T-philosophy was to get on the car both closest to the entrance I came into and also the closest to the exit at the station I would arrive. At least, I think it was that. On the 'L,' I don't really think about any of it that much. . .except to get under a heat lamp during the winter.