I haven't been this excited about having an article in print since we wrote "Everything We Need To Know About Program Management We Learned From Punk Rock."
Anyway, I hope you'll check it out and then pass it along to a friend!
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Hi Dan: excellent article although as you know I don't profess to know a whole lot about acuisitions in the AF... but I do know Greek mythology and Sisyphus is one of my favorite stories for exactly the same reasons as you pointed out.... now, another Greek myth (and sad story) is about 'Prometheus Bound'.... the poor good guy (Prometheus) who gets captured by the bad guys for being moral and is chained to that huge rock on a small island and faces every day a bad eagle who swoops down and eats his liver in agony ; yet every day, he somehow wakes up alive, yet doomed knowing that the eagle will later in the day show up and eat his liver once more.... somehow he is freed from this endless torture (maybe he retires or just refuses to 'play the game anymore; or changes the game; not sure)....I have no idea if you can use that Greek myth in your articles and I have no idea if there is anything in such a myth connected to acuisitions or anything related to real life, military or otherwise.... good luck..... your retired AF Dad
I agree, Dan, this is one of your finest. As I was reading along, I had in mind "fight the good fight, Dan". A few paragraphs later, here you are, quoting Churchill to that effect! It is good to see the radical in you has not faded. I had been in a funk lately with my own current acquisition. It is services, not hardware, but many of the stultifying effects of over-management that you describe are still there. You have re-inspired this grizzled old acquisition veteran to continue to fight the good fight!
May you take this fight to the Pentagon.
. . . besides, anyone who quotes Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in his paragraph headers is a friend o' mine!
Rock on'!
-- Dick
B.A., French
On the subject of fighting the good fight, I saw Valkyrie this weekend. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do so.
Thanks, Dick! I wish I could take credit for the paragraph headers, but those come from the talented, amazing and bold editors at AT&L. Kudos go to Carol & Judith!
now, another Greek myth (and sad story) is about 'Prometheus Bound'
There's actually a book along those lines: Rescuing Prometheus by Thomas Hughes. Hughes follows the development of 4 large-scale post-WWII technology projects that laid the ground-work for much of modern systems engineering. As a practitioner in the field, I thought it was a valuable read because it helps show how we got here.
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