My time working classified projects agrees with both of you - ability to clear is more important than talent, it is essentially the first prereq - everything el

My time working classified projects agrees with both of you - ability to clear is more important than talent, it is essentially the first prereq - everything else is secondary. And there are a handful of highly talented security people with a strong sense of the absurd from which basically all knowledge flows and the untalented are left to implement it via glorified checklists. Perhaps this focus on ultra-conventionality is why we are where we are now with these programs. Too many of the people involved that are essentially "go along to get along" types. You have to have a streak of rebelliousness in order to question the status quo, to see the social implications of these programs as anything other than "we are the good guys ergo whatever we do is good" and the selection process weeds out the people with that characteristic. I live an exceptionally boring life, always have, more as a result of laziness than anything else, but having a clearance always felt like a yoke on my shoulders. I am glad that I was never in the position that Snowden found himself.