Tech Product Manager | Former Navy submariner
jwithing
Operations is really demanding
Do you think OP should have a disclaimer about this incident in perpetuity?
If not, it’s been 15 years. When do you propose the cutoff would be?
You may find it interesting that in the military being a flag officer’s assistant is a very high prestige gig and reserved for top performers. But there isn’t an “executive assistant” career track so a person does this role for 2-3 years then rotates back to day-to-day operations.
For a given rank, compensation does not vary between roles in the military so perhaps the “clout” associated with being an assistant makes up for this.
Same thing with being a law clerk in the field of law.
I didn’t realize this was going on—I gotta check these forums more often! I love the transparency provided in your reflections here.
Hah perhaps I’ll get around to it. In this post, I wrote very, very briefly about some other observations, particularly around standards and talent acquisition.
The Navy/military is very unique because you can go long periods of time of sleeping at work. For months up to nearly a year, you’ll be sleeping in the same space as you work. You’re with your coworkers 24⁄7, working 7 days a week.
Perhaps I think too fondly of this. But if you are going after an opportunity worth billions of dollars (“earning to give” ;) ) or working directly to save millions/billions of (future) lives, isn’t that fervor actually rational? After all, there are professionals in the military that work with such mania to prevent nuclear war.
Yes, the context/task switching! Very under-explored in my post and can make things difficult.
Great to hear you have things that off-set the stress.
Given how much “cheaper” it is to move things over sea than land, you might be on to something. Cheaper is even more important in a post-catastrophe world.
Competencies like astral navigation and manual fixes are under-invested in by the US Navy so I wonder if you’re even over-estimating the starting point, which would make this work more important.
The Navy has “command climate” surveys that are mostly “independent” of the current officers-in-charge. A poor showing on such a survey resulted in the removal of a captain I know ;).
Along what dimensions, if any, have we not progressed or even regressed in the past 100 years?