3 ms·

There are bad apples everywhere. No place or team is perfect. The military, however, quickly purges the idiots and losers once they are exposed. If only this we

There are bad apples everywhere. No place or team is perfect. The military, however, quickly purges the idiots and losers once they are exposed. If only this were possible in the civilian world. You tend to hear of the negatives of the military over the news, never the thousands of little, often unnoticed or undocumented missions that occur daily where the military simply does what it does. I've met more sociopath types in IT than I ever ran into in the military. The military tends to get a bad rap in civilian circles, particularly the Marines, because they attract alpha males. It takes a certain mindset and ability to deal with vast amounts of mind games and BS to serve in the Marines, but to outsiders, this makes no sense. The near-24-hour chaos provided in training and in garrison teaches people to deal with chaos while making decisions that affect the lives of teammates. The yelling, hazing, banter, and heavy physicality teach you that in your chosen profession, there is no rose garden. As George Orwell wrote: "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." Bullying should be purged, near-harmless hazing, no. It teaches rite of passage, that membership is achieved and earned, not given. I don't want to work with beta males. They get people killed. Indecisiveness in combat gets people killed. When you're in combat, you're not giving a shit about the US or any other place. You're not fighting for that. You care only about the guys to your right and left. You live or die as a team. Morals always put the other person first. Love of family or teammates is not an emotion, but an act of the will. Love is not an emotion, it's an act of the will. You will the good of the other for other, with their best intentions in mind, even if it costs you your life. As Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

watwut 8y ago
Bullying should be purged, but is not. And others comes before individuals, except beta males and non-members. Near-harmless hazing, teaches rite of passage to membership alright, but morals are not only nor primary about how you act to your own members and friends. And maybe I don't want to be member of your group and where does it leaves your behavior toward me, exactly? Morals have more to do with how you treat non-members and beta males and competitors. Not sure what all that has to do with combat. Ultimately, people in IT are not in combat. Our moral questions are about which projects to work on and whether overly optimistic estimate counts as lie. Should I fight my manger to be unethical and where is the line? How much tracking is ok and am I going to develop software that breaks the law?

watwut 8y ago

Bullying should be purged, but is not. And others comes before individuals, except beta males and non-members. Near-harmless hazing, teaches rite of passage to membership alright, but morals are not only nor primary about how you act to your own members and friends. And maybe I don't want to be member of your group and where does it leaves your behavior toward me, exactly? Morals have more to do with how you treat non-members and beta males and competitors. Not sure what all that has to do with combat. Ultimately, people in IT are not in combat. Our moral questions are about which projects to work on and whether overly optimistic estimate counts as lie. Should I fight my manger to be unethical and where is the line? How much tracking is ok and am I going to develop software that breaks the law?