Popeye, Olive Oyl & the Maturity Model

[Guy McDonald <guy -at- OZ -dot- NET>]

Someone wrote:
"From what I've seen, military personnel fit best when a company is Level II
and beyond. At Level III and above, organizations begin to resemble the
military, itself, and it actually welcomes the disciplined worker."

My turn to echo what the three Daves (Orr, Dubin & Lettvin) have said:

Carnegie Melon's SEI Capability Maturity Model?  Where is the section that
niches ex-military worker-bees into the "disciplined worker" slot for Level
II - IV companies?  I don't know why this thread has gone on so long. If
some of the statements which were said about ex-military people were applied
using gender/race criteria - methinks that this list would be minus a few
more subscribers.

I dare say that most of us have either known, worked for, been married to,
raised by, managed, etc., ex-military types.  These people are everywhere. A
great percentage of US males above the age of 30 are ex-military.  Thanks to
the destruction of anti-female bias, we now have many women who are
ex-military.  Israel is even another matter with their mandatory military
service. Technical writing is not a field which has some magical area that
ex-military dare not enter - entry level, start-up company, or whatever.

For you junior tech writers and college students, here's yet another example
of how different people get into this field and how there is no "one best
way" to enter tech writing.  I am one of those rigid, anal retentive, unable
to adapt ex-military types. The US Navy spent $900,000 and 36 months to
teach me how to operate nuclear power plants.  I was then placed in an
underwater office where I saw no daylight for up to 70 days at a time. Of
course, we were so rigidly disciplined to behave like drones that our
focused mental state prohibited us from going completely insane.

Anyone reading this who knows an ex-submariner understands that they are not
crazy, but are just plain boring folk to be around. Ask my wife Robin -
she's on this list, too. Of course, what does she know? She worked with
ex-military folks at NASA for several years. But what do they know? They are
a bunch of anal-retentive military types, too. I don't see that they've had
any type of creative accomplishments or endeavors over the past 30 years.
Hmmm ...

But I digress. So after the nuclear stuff was done - where did I go?
Techknuckle writing of course.  Why?  Because my rigid disciplined mind drew
me to the field.  Did I write for electrical or nuclear power generation?
NOPE.  Instead, Guy (the anal-retentive sailor man) became a grunt
consultant worker drone who flew from Seattle to Alaska to create Process
Safety Management documentation for the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline.  Many
frequent flyer miles and SOPs later, the contract was finished.

So - where did the aforementioned "rigid disciplined mind" lead me next?
Why pulp and paper of course! Sure... I mean after all, you have to give us
anal-retentive ex-military types credit for being one-dimensional thinkers.
You'd think I'd just meander back into nuclear power. After all, that's all
my rigid anal-retentive mind could handle, right? The paper-making business
lasted for two years.

Now what am I up to?  Why, being static again. Let's see ... I met my wife
indirectly through this list, thanks to Eric and his unswaying denial of
off-topic posts (Eric, were you in the military??? <BEG>). Hmm ... seems
like if I had an anal-retentive mind I would always know to stay on-topic.
But I didn't, and I somehow ended up on a renegade technical writing list,
along with my soon-to-be wife and several other tecknuckle writers. Over the
past few years, I got  hitched, blended a family, relocated, and returned to
school.  I have four classes left on a Business Information Systems degree.
Time for Guy the rigid disciplined ex-military man to invade the lovely
field of IT. Look out for me, I may be your next boss. >:)

There's more to this story - but why bother telling more? After all, we
military types do know how to be concise and to the point. I guess that
would make us great for the technical writing field. And the point is - us
ex-military types are *so* darn inflexible. I submit that our military minds
are trained in quite the opposite way. We learn how to think on our feet,
take risks, and eat our spinach.

I'm technical writing man.
I do the best job I can.
I write to the finish, with a style to diminish
The anal retentive and bland!!!

*toooot toooot!!!*

Guy McDonald
Seattle, WA
guy -at- oz -dot- net


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