If you want to become a political expert which time ratio of studying news, journals, political theory etc. is the best?

[noname223]

Things to study or learn.
News, texts from journals, political theory, political economy, media theory/media science, writing own texts, practical knowledge, political communication, methodic skills, history, comparative politics, ideology and frame analysis, institutional analysis, statistics

Which of those are key qualities? I think I waste too much time on news consumption.

 

[DarkRange55]

Geography? I sent you an article about that from Bloomberg. Geopolitics. Just for example, the USA was basically just blessed with the greatest geography in the world, that helps explain why it's been so prosperous basically since the conclusion of the American Civil War.
Just don't rely on it too much to the point of it sounding like geographic determinism. One of the coolest classes I ever took was economics of geography (some name like that).

Demographics, maybe?

Strategy, perhaps? Whether that's military or power or hybrid warfare or whatever. Sun Tzu, Edward Luttwak (I have all his books).

Just throwing some ideas out …statecraft/diplomacy? Infrastructure and technology, maybe law?




…having lots of money?

Aside from local or county-level politics, like say, city council or fire commissioner or something like that… I'm a businessperson so I don't refer or affiliate with things with politics or the news or media. I associate with businesses and businesses people like Kemper Freeman or Warren Buffet

 

[DarkRange55]

I think understanding more cultures is another one. But I can't emphasize history enough. And seriously geography: where is the oil, trade routes, why is Iran hard to invade because of its geography?

There are many mechanisms at play so it's very multifaceted like real estate (zoning, marketing, engineering, PM, etc.)

I think technology will only become more important. 500 years ago, generals formed their men in straight lines and sent them out to attack fixed positions with weapons like partisans. This seemed effective when combat took place face to face. But with the invent of firearms, particularly the machine gun, these same tactics resulted in the slaughter of thousands. You must match your tactics to the prevailing technology.

Perspective military science is also what I meant

Psychology or sociology - reading the crowds or reading leaders

I think understanding propaganda is important. Not sure if you mentioned that yet. My favorite black magic magician is Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew, who pioneered modern propaganda by applying psychoanalytic ideas to mass persuasion. He believed people are not primarily rational actors and that large populations prefer to be guided rather than left to their own judgment.

Idk how much math you want but you could look into Game Theory and Decision Theory, if you haven't.