
Patton's sword and the future of work - awinter-py
https://abe-winter.github.io/change/2017/05/05/pattons-sword.html
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Animats
The US military's approach to officer development is totally different from
the civilian world. Someone who's been an officer should describe it here.
It's normal for officers to go from combat units to full-time schooling and
back again. Biographies of generals often show several cycles of that.

The military maintains schools of its own, and will ship promising officers
off to civilian universities. Gen. Daniel Bolger got a PhD in history from the
University of Chicago during his career, between his two tours in Iraq and
another in Afghanistan. That's normal at the higher levels of the military.

At the lower levels, everybody gets run through task-oriented schools, which
are usually better equipped with equipment and simulators than civilian
operations. In the military, after being lectured on something, you usually
practice doing it. Military education is set up to produce results in minimum
time, not at minimum cost.

Here's a US Navy simulator.[1] That's not a real ship; it's a full-sized
mockup indoors, near Chicago.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0eGmEcACBM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0eGmEcACBM)

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omnimus
Well US is putting like 54% of US yearly budget into military. That money must
go somewhere. It makes sense it might produce best education. Compare it to 6%
US is putting into education. I wonder what would happen if those two numbers
were switched.

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Mvandenbergh
The US spends 15% of total government spending on education. 6.4% of GDP is
spent directly on education which is about 1% more than the OECD average.

12% is spent on defense including veterans. [numbers different than previous
poster because I've used %s of total gov't spending rather than just Federal]

So if we swapped then we would increase the US defence budget at the cost of
education. Donald, is that you?

[http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2017UStn_1...](http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2017UStn_18ts2n_2030#usgs302)

[https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp)

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aleksei
I'd imagine the education spending per capita to be higher in the military
though? So if that was swapped the point might hold.

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roymurdock
Really enjoyed the author's style of switching back and forth between deep
historical dive and musings on current situation. Flows really well.

Went back to re-read for main prescriptive points around current trends in
education, and got this: _We need to offer more kinds of education to adults
who have started their careers as well as to companies that need their staff
to get better at something...If we get this wrong it could be disastrous...the
risk of population collapse may be reduced by promoting individual learning
and innovation_

Wish the author could have offered more guidance here to his opinion on
leading educational programs, especially WRT the modern day corollary to the
cavalry sword/tank metaphor in a few important industries. The finance take is
interesting, but outdated, mainly discussing floor to electronic trading (70s,
80s).

Otherwise great article, thanks for the share.

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taylorbuley
My wife's great-grandfather was in that low speed car crash that killed Patton
in the German country side. He was Patton's chief of staff. I was always
amazed how a warrior so great could die so unremarkably.

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golergka
> I was always amazed how a warrior so great could die so unremarkably.

Great enough to avoid death in combat? After all, not dying in combat is
supposed to be one of the main tasks of a warrior.

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sgt101
Valhalla called, it was hard to work out what was going on on the other side
of the line, but I think that they said that you're wrong.

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linkregister
I was offered a job where a selling point was its continuing education at an
in-house "university". The starting salary was lower than comparable jobs.

I'm not sure if they were ahead of their time or if it was a bad deal
disguised as a good one. Maybe the in-house training was only on proprietary,
non-portable information.

The author is right, the military is unmatched in its opportunities for
education and managed career progression. It has its downsides, of course.

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eli_gottlieb
Thanks for writing this. I've been trying to figure out where I'm going with
my career lately, and even if I've got one at all right now. This article
really affirmed that the couple of directions I've been thinking of (finally
break down and learn webdev, pursue ML/cogsci research) were in the right
ballpark.

I couldn't have predicted ten years ago, when starting university, where
things would be today. Yes, everything that's a Big Deal today existed in
infancy then, but it existed in infancy _among many competitors_. I thought a
lot of it was a passing fad, and I've been wrong multiple times over on that.

Lessons learned: stop expecting fads to pass, build fundamental skills far
stronger and broader than you ever thought you'd need, and overall, stop
letting history happen _to_ you. Get out in front and choose which path gets
taken for yourself.

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jgamman
Watch out for selection bias. The question is what are the odds you are going
to pick the right fad?

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eli_gottlieb
I very much agree, hence the two latter items in the list. Fundamentals need
to be much stronger to deal with decades worth of passing fads than I thought
they needed to be when one set of fads seemed permanent (ie: when I was young
and starting out). The best way to not get caught up in fads is to be the one
out in front propagating real, effective new technologies or methods and
letting other people turn some into fads and some not.

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

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ameister14
A small point - Teddy Roosevelt was not FDR; Twain thought that Teddy was
crazy, not that Franklin Delano was.

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awinter-py
crap, sorry -- muscle memory. fixed.

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tempodox
If there is a point to all this, I must have missed it.

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lubonay
I think the main point is that one must not lose their ability to adapt when
faced with rapid environmental changes. The 21st century can be defined so far
as rapid changes all around, so this is pretty relevant.

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dvanwag
Some of the comments on here are the very reason military leaders don't share
experience with those that have never lived the life.

