Brett,

I used to work in IT until the 90s, mostly supporting engineers. I then moved to databases in banking/finance/pharmaceutical industries while doing a university degree.

I never served in the military and I don't have an engineering or a design degree.

None of these things particularly bother me since the one thing I did learn in university is that experts can get stuff really wrong.

Many great discoveries were made by amateurs.

My degree was primarily in economics and international relations, so you can perhaps see how I got that idea.

My interest in military 'stuff' started when I was still a teenager, though I was never really attracted to guns or extreme sports.

What interested me more is why certain high ranking officers made certain decisions that led to certain outcomes.

Based on my reading I soon decided that chess was a really 'limited' game.

I took up wargaming in the 80s, and was enticed into Traveller in the late 80s, though I wasn't really into RPG because I found quite a few participants were er...'unstable' and often irrational for my 'taste'. My interest in Traveller persisted for only a few years because the one game master (i.e. the only person who was interested in writing up adventures) moved away/disappeared.

However, I did persist with Striker for a time, and even bought the 2nd edition rules though by this stage I had definite ideas about wargaming also.

My military history/warfare research started in the 70s generally focusing on the Second World War Eastern Front, which led me backwards in sourcing Soviet doctrinal thinking to the American Civil War, and forwards into the (at the time) AirLand Battle.

My current activity is, or rather was, focused on 'selling' the USMC a doctrine and vehicles designs, however the USMC colonels have a huge problem in listening to a civilian. They would rather lie, including to the Congress, and go one wasting time and money than admit that a civilian has a better idea than they do. The USMC share this trait with the US Army.

So I'm not a stranger to being told it isn't possible that I should know something that 'everyone' disagrees with.

This used to bother me quite a bit until I discovered research by Greg Berns (see Iconoclast).

Along the way I made a few peripheral discoveries, so I'm considering going into consultancy, helping companies with innovation.

Greg

On 21 June 2015 at 21:49, Brett Kruger <krugerbf@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

On 21/06/2015 9:24 PM, Greg Chalik wrote:
On 21 June 2015 at 18:27, Knapp <magick.crow@gmail.com> wrote:

condescending

I think I know something others may not.

This doesn't make anyone else less knowledgeable, and certainly not 'stupid'. If the individuals perceive this, it is their perception alone and certainly not my intent. There are many thinks I don't know, and I accept this. It seesm to me that it isn't necessary or possible to know everything. My pursuits are therefore focused on specific areas of knowledge and understanding them. Warfare is one such area.

Unfortunately the process of discovery almost always puts the discoverer or innovator in this position where its him against the rest because of...human nature for groupthink, i.e. safety in numbers. I would highly recommend The Innovator's Extinction by David Ulmer for further understanding of this phenomna.

Of course I don't know what others in this list know, and there is no way of finding out except to simply say things and wait for responses.

I have no way to control how people respond. That is down to personalities and their perceptions of me.

If anyone is interested, by own MBTI type is ENTP, though I used to be more I, and have sought to become more J.

Of course calling someone condescending often comes from a self-perception, often subcoscious, of being inferior. I can't really help what other people think or feel. All I can do is communicate.

Brett, what is it like when arguing with a designer? :-)

I'm not an engineer.

Mud however is a significant issue in the current TL when it comes to design of armoured vehicles :-)

Greg

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Hi Greg,

I've been on the list for a few years now but stay quiet mostly as I know there are a lot of people way smarter than I am on this list. But what you said above got me to thinking, what do some of these smart people do for a crust? I know what a few do by their signatures (Hi Bruce J & David JW) and I know more than a few are military/ex-military. I know I've been told off in games I GM more than once how I got something about the military wrong (chain of command and ranks is something I got badly wrong once).

Myself, I work in IT in Local Government and more recently Education, having started Traveller in high school many years ago and have no more experience than a passion for science fiction. Mind you I still think the mega computers of Traveller are cool. I have worked with a lot of engineers (not so with designers, I really like the only one I know) which is why that quote makes me chuckle as I have been on the end of many an argument with them.

One thing I do know working in IT is how often what is said in emails is sometimes taken the wrong way, both by something I wrote and things I have received. I was told by a HR type one time it is because so much of how we communicate is non-verbal.

Man, am I starting to sound preachy? Time to pull my head back in and go sit quietly in the background.
:)

Brett.
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