On: Hacking for Defense Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations

[chadgpt3]

I believe the quip associated with this is "don't hate the player, hate the game."

War is where the money is. The government of this country has decided that you make money by going to war and you don't make money by not going to war. It's also decided that having money is mandatory. So if you want to succeed you'll go to war.

[AndrewKemendo → chadgpt3]

This is extremely well put and precisely accurate

you may not even appreciate how accurate this is because it seems so simple but it’s exactly true

The moment you say “I’m not going to spend my time doing war” (in my case anymore) you are persona non grata to capitalism

[mhb → AndrewKemendo]

> “I’m not going to spend my time doing war” (in my case anymore)

It's less convenient to indulge that opinion without the protection of the most powerful military in the world.

[AndrewKemendo → mhb]

Ah yes this old chestnut

Come back to me after you serve in combat. The dod doesn’t protect anything but investors’ returns.

I’ll have two time Medal of Honor winner explain it to you:

https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket

[mhb → AndrewKemendo]

I don't need a 13 page pamphlet to convince me that people are motivated by making money. But that's orthogonal to wanting a powerful military under whose umbrella you are pontificating.

[chadgpt3 → mhb]

The DOW (the dow right now, is it over 50 thou?) only protects capital interests as the other user said. You can't expect it to protect you unless your interests align with capital.

Are Iranians feeling protected? No, are Americans protected from Iran? Also no. Are gas companies protected from low prices? Hell yeah they are!