Memorial Day 2016: A war story that predicted the future of IT

I like traditional paper books and resisted going to ebooks. I like to think it wasn't because I was stupid, I certainly understood the value of their portability but I thought ebooks were soulless. I grew up in a time where a quality bound book was a piece of education and also a work of art. It was collectible and you could get an author to sign it. It had value. But eventually I succumbed to the lure of being able to have thousands of books on my phone.

I was slow to adopt audio books too, but recently started up after flooding in Houston caused my commute to become longer. And I've wiped out three books in six weeks or so, improving my rate of attacking my backlog.

One of those books was Day of Infamy, by Walter Lord. It was written a long time ago but is a detailed overview of the Dec 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It's a great book. The Pearl Harbor attack was a surprise and a shock to many on the islands. Some people even mistook the inbound Japanese airplanes for Americans on training maneuvers.

When the servicemen understood what was going on, many moved to respond, trying to help others or pass the word. Many others tried to put up whatever resistance they could, even firing at passing planes with small arms. Getting those small arms was sometimes difficult. Lord's book mentions a couple situations relevant to this blog.

There were some instances where even amid the attack the supply clerks refused to issue arms or ammunition to the men without the proper authorization. This represents several of the themes I've noticed in our IT industry.

• Revering Process at the cost of Effectiveness. The intransigent supply clerks had a narrow focus on their role, which was essentially to control inventory. They lacked an appreciation for the larger picture and worshiped the traditions of their gods rather than the reality surrounding them. The impetus for this thinking may have been grounded in reasonable motives (cost control, safety, accountability) but such adherence to dogma rather than the primary goal of the institution (in the case of the US military, to defend the nation) may have cost lives. This anti-pattern is often the fallout of large organizations that have naturally segregated duties for specialization and formed silos of knowledge. These silos have their own management chains and can take a counterproductive focus as they work to justify their existence. This behavior doesn't require a large organization though; there are plenty of inexperienced managers out there that can do the same thing even in small companies.
• The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. I probably don't need to explain this one. In a world increasingly driven by people and groups that have mastered the ability to push personal interests over what's really important, you can find plenty of real world examples.
• The Tactical Reality will Override the Theoretical Ideal. Lord mentions that in some desperate cases, servicemen took axes to the locks on ammunition cages and did what they had to do. Yes, an accountant somewhere will be very hurt by the loss of the lock, but although Harlan Ellison astutely noted that "the world is becoming a cesspool of imbeciles," people are not completely stupid and sometimes humans can be surprisingly functional. Even though I can't stand the ludicrous edicts of the Sarbanes Oxley act, SOX procedures do allow for the people who can get the job done to have provisional authority in emergencies. But I'll bet money it wasn't Sarbanes or Oxley that allowed for that, but the grunts in the trenches that fought back against the original rules.

In honor of the servicemen that lost lives at Pearl Harbor that fateful day, I wish you a happy Memorial Day. 

The Burning Ends Annual Memorial Day Post of 2013

It's become sort of a tradition that I post on Memorial Day. So here we are in 2013 and the cynical bastard is at it again.

American Sniper

I've just finished reading American Sniper [Amazon.com] by Chris Kyle. It's Kyle's memoir about his life as a US Navy SEAL. As SEAL biographies go, it about par for the course with plenty of action and anecdotes about the grueling training program and missions in Iraq. It's told with the help of professional writers and they do a good job of capturing Kyle's personality. Contrary to what some grunts probably believe about any of the special forces teams and their PR engines, Kyle is very reverent to other services, paying respects and recognizing they were truly a bigger part of the conflict than a few sniper teams. He is repeatedly humble about his achievements always felt like he was there to help others.

Kyle would have probably been proud to refer to himself as a Texas redneck, but there is something admirable about the no-nonsense common sense and honesty in this country boy's words. Kyle isn't shy about sharing his opinions and in this day of political correctness, I appreciate that even if I didn't agree with him on everything. Every day, and on Memorial Day especially, we honor our veterans by respecting free speech and free thought.

As I read the book, I found it echoed many of the themes I cover here at The Burning Ends. Kyle ranted about how administrative overhead could interfere with getting the actual job done. He dealt with a SOX-like regulation of his own where he had to document each shooting and have witnesses, and how sometimes those rules of engagement meant he had to refrain from sniping a questionable contact that might have gone on to harm other people. But Kyle wasn't stupid, he understood why those rules were there and even conceded that the recordkeeping had a benefit of helping him track his work.

The Decision-Consequence Gap goes to War

The book also reminded me often of my last post, The Decision-Consequence Gap. Careerist officer types more concerned with looking good on paper would withhold Kyle and his teams from working the dangerous zones where they could be more effective at helping troops. By being able to report low or no casualties the officer would look good. This is analogous to IT leaders that do not empower their teams to understand, master, and improve processes, hardware and software that will ultimately improve the business. In sports, that approach is often referred to as "playing not to lose" rather than "playing to win". I'll give the officers in question a bit more slack than Kyle does though, as human life is a harder chip to play than user comfort and efficiency or a little more profit.

The Cost

But there is always a cost for managerial complacency and selfishness. In Iraq, was the cost that more line troops lost lives without the overwatch duties Kyle's sniper teams could have provided?

That's an important point about cost. I wrote earlier about free speech and free thought and I do believe that how we carry ourselves and cherish the benefits of the American way is a measure of respect for veterans (recall Saving Private Ryan's [Amazon.com] admonition at the end of the film: people died for you to have this life. Make it worth it.). But Memorial Day is really about the cost, not the benefit.

So to every veteran, thank you. Again. We can't say it enough.

The Difference

And for you idiots that think all things military are bad, well, too bad. I know, there are Iraqi and Afghan citizens that call US soldiers the terrorists, and if someone lost a child to collateral damage from a drone-fired Hellfire missile, I sympathize for a pain that I wish no one would ever have to endure. But that goes for the children of 911 too, and I don't take kindly to being called a terrorist because there is a difference between us even with the mistakes we've made.

Kyle mentions Mike Monsoor, a SEAL that dove on a grenade to save his fellow teammates. It's not a one-time thing. There's also the story of Specialist Ross McGinnis who did a similar thing in Iraq to save others. THAT is the difference. For all our faults, Americans at large revere life. You don't hear stories about insurgents doing such things, they're too busy blowing up civilians. America reveres life enough to spend significantly more on soldier training and equipment. To spend significantly more on search and rescue operations. That is the difference; the enemy our military has been fighting for the last decade would do no such things even if they could. Kyle made no bones about calling the enemy plain evil, and as crude a description as it is, it is also the truth.

Chris Kyle, Rest in Peace

It is on a somber note that I close this post. I purchased the American Sniper as an eBook in early 2013. I later found that recently Kyle passed away [ABC News]. It was not from war, but from a tragic incident in which Kyle was trying to help another veteran. It's a terribly sad thing to happen after what Kyle endured in dealing with war and coping with the challenges of returning to civilian life and focusing on his family. But he tried to help others because he cared about life. And that's the difference that we should take from it.