Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Here's What the Pentagon's Top Cost Estimator Has to Say About the Death Star
VN: There is a disturbing lack of railings and personnel protection gear in Imperial facilities. You've got 1.5 million people on the Death Star, and all those corridors and canyons without any non-skid flooring and rails. On one hand, the Empire may have saved in design and construction by not dealing with any Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, but on the other hand, couldn't you save a bundle in personnel replacement costs by just putting in some basic safety features?
JM: I am confident the Empire's personnel policies are pretty coercive, and Episode VII just confirmed my supposition. In the US, we're 40 years into the all-volunteer force, where only volunteers join our military, and it has been a huge success. But we're still continually working on how to make the most of our people, and how to keep military service attractive to the best and brightest in our society. One of the things Secretary Ash Carter has [done] is look at how to make the military attractive to people who may not want to spend their whole life in uniform but who have skills that will serve our nation well. It's something we constantly need to work on. Also, we do have handrails in the Pentagon.
VN: Finally, if there's one thing that stands out about the Empire's personnel management practices, it's Darth Vader's extremely robust zero-defects policy for his top leadership. Using the Force to telekinetically strangle people for failing and then filling the freshly-vacated posts with bystanders is arguably the most aggressive implementation imaginable of policies like the Pentagon's "up or out." Are there lessons the Pentagon should take from Lord Vader's management style?
JM: I admit to having sat in some of the Pentagon's famously long meetings and tried to see if I happened to have gained the ability to telekinetically choke out a really boring briefer. It hasn't worked yet.
JM: I am confident the Empire's personnel policies are pretty coercive, and Episode VII just confirmed my supposition. In the US, we're 40 years into the all-volunteer force, where only volunteers join our military, and it has been a huge success. But we're still continually working on how to make the most of our people, and how to keep military service attractive to the best and brightest in our society. One of the things Secretary Ash Carter has [done] is look at how to make the military attractive to people who may not want to spend their whole life in uniform but who have skills that will serve our nation well. It's something we constantly need to work on. Also, we do have handrails in the Pentagon.
VN: Finally, if there's one thing that stands out about the Empire's personnel management practices, it's Darth Vader's extremely robust zero-defects policy for his top leadership. Using the Force to telekinetically strangle people for failing and then filling the freshly-vacated posts with bystanders is arguably the most aggressive implementation imaginable of policies like the Pentagon's "up or out." Are there lessons the Pentagon should take from Lord Vader's management style?
JM: I admit to having sat in some of the Pentagon's famously long meetings and tried to see if I happened to have gained the ability to telekinetically choke out a really boring briefer. It hasn't worked yet.
https://news.vice.com/article/heres-what-the-pentagons-top-cost-estimator-has-to-say-about-the-death-star
Interesting and funny read.
