Optimal Friction™

The POPTech audience sat in rapt silence as Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton told their story described in their new book, "American Hostage." In 2003 Micah and Marie-Helene were in Iraq chronicling the looting of historical articacts from archeological sites dating back thousands of years. Two days before being scheduled to leave, Micah and his Iraqi translater Amir Doshe were kidnapped by insurgent fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in a crowded market in Nasiriyah.

A remarkable aspect of this story was told by Marie-Helene about how Micah's release was made possible by the grassroots, tech-enabled efforts by a wide social network that she and Micah's family enlisted both in America and among people on the ground (connected to the local clerics) inside Iraq. She made a particular point that - in addition to traditional channels - this network rallied a vast array of people to help conduct the delicate negotiations that rescued Micah and Amir (after a tense ten days in captivity) .

One thing that I said to Micah and Marie-Helene after their talk was how powerfully this came across - as a love story. There was one moment in particular during their talk where Micah described how his friend Amir was beaten while blindfolded in captivity. He had to stop for a moment, and you could feel the tears welling up as he tried to regain his composure before the 500+ (totally silent) people in our audience. Marie-Helene gently reached over and touched his hand in a tender gesture. I found myself feeling flush with emotion just witnessing that, as I'm sure others did too.

Another aspect of this story was how fragile events can be that can tilt destiny in one direction versus the next. Although Micah was essentially "undercover" in Iraq, mostly blending into the country with his olive skin and bushy mustache, what tipped his would-be captors that he was an "outsider" was a small digital camera that he had in his hand in the Nasiriyah marketplace. How strange that his destiny shifted in that one brief moment when the camera was spotted.

Micah's gratitude for his release was framed in the context of the terrible executions of two other hostages who preceded him: Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg. The Pearl reference struck close to home for me, since my office in Pittsfield, Massachusetts is also home to the Berkshire Eagle newspaper, where Pearl was a reporter before joining the Wall St Journal.

Later that evening, in a restaurant with Dan Costa, a senior editor with PC Magazine, we talked about how we wished our country could be more conscious of the thousands of soldiers who did not get out of Iraq alive like Micah Garen.

That being said, it was a wonderful experience hearing and later meeting Micah and Marie-Helene. I imagine that their lives will have a future filled with purpose as they raise awareness among people who get to hear their remarkable story.