McCrystal (updated!)

I suppose I should say something about the foot-in-mouth problem of General Stanley McCrystal. Regarding the implications of civilian / military relations and the war in Afghanistan, I basically agree with Jim Wright's take. From a more basic perspective, McCrystal bitched about his bosses and co-workers.

It's something we've all done. But if your comments get printed in the local newspaper, especially if they were as part of an interview, don't be surprised if your boss asks you to seek other employment. (See: discretion, valor, better part of.)

ETA: I really can't fault the reporter for this. The reporter was doing his job. Some people (like reporters) really are out to get you. You, the get-ee, need to be aware of that. Doesn't mean you lie to the reporter - but neither should you volunteer information they don't need to know.

And your opinion on your boss's conduct of business is not on the list of things they need to know.

Dunning-Kruger, Take Two, or The Failure Mode of Clever

So, a few days ago, the great John Scalzi had another post on the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome. For those just joining, the Dunning-Kruger syndrome is where incompetent people don't realize that they are incompetent, even as they do things incompetently. I'm not sure what prompted Scalzi's musings, but this post followed closely on the heels of a cryptic statement that "the failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'."

At any rate, Scalzi's post led me to the discovery of the idea that no one knows what they are doing. Steve Schwartz, the author of that link, postulates three types of knowledge:
1) Stuff you know
2) Stuff you know you don't know
3) Stuff you don't know you don't know (Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns.")

It's a long and interesting post, but one of the ideas is that spending your life in category #3 is dangerous. One will go blissfully along doing stuff, unaware of the potential danger, until, sooner or later, wham! So the goal is to get as much stuff into categories 1 and 2.

Thus endeth today's lesson...