Read chapters 1 & 2 Mr. Dinosaur fell down the front steps of the clinic and hit his head, dying. “What an unfortunate accident, eh?” Dr. Fox said to a passing Mrs. Cat, who pushed her tiny kitten in a stroller, “I should really do something about this dangerous staircase.” *** Mrs. Cat smiled warily … Continue reading The Fable of Dr. Fox – Chapter 3
In response to the sentiment “The Air Force Doesn’t Care about People”
This is in response to a Facebook post in which someone recalled a Senior NCO telling them "The Air Force doesn't care about people. It only cares about mission." I was just writing about this very thing. If we, as leaders of this organization, don't decide what our values are, our values will be informed … Continue reading In response to the sentiment “The Air Force Doesn’t Care about People”
The Fable of Dr. Fox – Chapters 1 & 2
Chapter 1 - Mrs. Hedgehog There once was an intelligent fox named Fox, who was also a medical professional. He was Dr. Fox. He wanted to help people. He opened a small medical clinic in the center of town, knowing for sure that people in his community would want to be treated by him. He … Continue reading The Fable of Dr. Fox – Chapters 1 & 2
A Retrospective
I don't produce content just for content's sake. I have the luxury of writing only when I have something to say. For that reason, I wasn't planning on doing a themed end-of-year or decade blog post. But seeing all of these splendid retrospectives at the close of 2019 and the preceding decade got me wondering … Continue reading A Retrospective
Bring 35% of Yourself to Work
I spend a lot of time advocating for Air Force units to use the communication/ collaboration tool Slack, because it's currently the best one out there, and as a result, I find myself in a lot of strained exchanges on the subject of Operational Security (OPSEC) (see my rant "OPSEC is bad" for what I think about … Continue reading Bring 35% of Yourself to Work
Agitate: On Being the Unfrozen Middle
Whenever we talk about innovation in the Air Force, we inevitably end up stumbling upon that familiar old trope of "The Frozen Middle", which approximately describes the theory of "middle-status conformity", in which those mid-tier leaders with enough power to enable or impede innovation for the majority are incentivized to remain risk-averse by their long-earned … Continue reading Agitate: On Being the Unfrozen Middle
FICINT- 2060AD
:2060 AD: Decades of verbal exchanges with household devices, like millions of hours of speech therapy, has conditioned the populous into the pithy, clipped, deconstructed lexicon below the threshold of abstraction at which silicon logic loses coherence... Now well trained, the population mutually interfaces in anti-poetry, ensuring the surveillance state and interested adversaries alike ease … Continue reading FICINT- 2060AD
OPSEC is Bad (rant)
*Warning: Some of the following may contain hyperbole. My wife was once told in an OPSEC (operational security) briefing for military spouses that every day, she should alter her route to work or taking the kids to school... to thwart adversary attempts to establish a pattern of life on her. That's right. My wife. A … Continue reading OPSEC is Bad (rant)
A Little Tribal Overlap
I have a theory that service-members of my generation and later are less likely to accept the premise that their military identity is an exclusive one. Many of my enlisted and commissioned peers consider themselves to be equally members of other tribes and communities--not just as a matter of personal perspective, but as a fact easily … Continue reading A Little Tribal Overlap
AI, Inefficiency, Innovation
It occurs to me occasionally, as I see military branches and governments around the world leap headlong into a future maximally enabled by artificial intelligence... that we might be witnessing the outset of the absolute eradication of the most powerful force in the history of human progress, creativity, and innovation- Could AI be beckoning the … Continue reading AI, Inefficiency, Innovation
