--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 13 description: Using better surveys to improve counterinsurgency strategy, learning from Israel's data-driven water conservation system, and more. Using better s canonical: https://time.com/3665540/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-13/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-13T17:01:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:14.983Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: Using better surveys to improve counterinsurgency strategy, learning from Israel's data-driven water conservation system, and more. Using better s og:url: https://time.com/3665540/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-13/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: Using better surveys to improve counterinsurgency strategy, learning from Israel's data-driven water conservation system, and more. Using better s twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 13 by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 13, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 13, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**The U.S. could improve its counterinsurgency strategy by gathering better public opinion data from people in conflict zones.**](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/01/06/how-to-make-surveys-in-war-zones-better-and-why-this-is-important/) By Andrew Shaver and Yang-Yang Zhou in the Washington Post **2\.** [**The drought-stricken western U.S. can learn from Israel’s water management software which pores over tons of data to detect or prevent leaks.**](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2015-01-08/takadu-helps-israel-be-a-most-efficient-water-manager) By Amanda Little in Bloomberg Businessweek **3\.** [**Beyond “Teach for Mexico:” To upgrade Latin America’s outdated public education systems, leaders must fight institutional inequality.**](http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2015/0111/In-Latin-America-new-urgency-to-educate-stirs-up-outdated-system) By Whitney Eulich and Ruxandra Guidi in the Christian Science Monitor **4\.** [**Investment recommendations for retirees are often based on savings levels achieved by only a small fraction of families. Here’s better advice.**](http://dailyeconomy.org/2015/01/12/rethinking-safe-investing-as-retirement-approaches/) By Luke Delorme in the Daily Economy **5\.** [**Lessons from the Swiss: We should start making people pay for the trash they throw away.**](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-trash-letter-20150106-story.html) By Sabine Oishi in the Baltimore Sun  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3665540/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-13/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3665540/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-january-13/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: January 13","datePublished":"2015-01-13T17:01:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:14.983Z","description":"Using better surveys to improve counterinsurgency strategy, learning from Israel's data-driven water conservation system, and more. 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