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| 4/3 |
| 2007/9/29-10/5 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:48211 Activity:high |
9/29 Someone was asking about Sameer. He is at Quantico right now,
just starting OCS. I am sure he would appreciate your letters. -ausman
http://www.creativedestruction.com/blog
\_ As someone who has met Sameer but never really knew him that
well: WHY?
\_ My theory is that he's convinced that the government needs
to change, and badly. However, the people with the most
credibility and ability to change the government are those
who have risked their lives in service to this country.
I think his long-term plan is to honorably serve, and then
return and work for political change.
\_ Perhaps 9/11 convinced him of the urgent need to defend his
country. -- ilyas
\_ Or maybe all that money made him really lose his mind.
Also he wanted something to do with his life since he doesn't
have to work anymore.
\_ Are you implying you must be insane to join the military
without economic duress? -- ilyas
\_ Nope. I am implying Sameer went insane.
\_ Isn't Sameer gay?
\_ In this case it's just a non sequitur insult.
I salute you sir, you make the motd a better place.
Actually I'm not implying. I STATE:
Sameer went insane.
\_ I don't know Sameer, how did he go insane?
\_ He talked about WHY in his blog a while back. Check the archives.
\_ This appears to be the relevant post. Wow. I totally respect
him. http://www.creativedestruction.com/archives/2006_04.html
\_ and more in http://www.creativedestruction.com/archives/2006_05.html
\_ I don't make a habit of reading his blog (or any blog
for that matter). His reasons sound pretty selfish. He
should have just gotten a dog if he wanted to feel
needed.
\_ Here on the motd we can show the selfish pricks like
Sameer how it's done!
\_ Wow. You're a dick! -dans
\_ A realist. There's no point going over there to
get killed. We dont need another Pat Tillman.
When people do dumb things someone has to say so.
\_ Ok, I'll volunteer. Your post is dumb, dick.
\_ Yes, because the best way for Sameer to
benefit the USA is to be KIA in Iraq.
\_ To join the chorus, you are fucking
retarded. -- someone else
\_ The best way for Sameer (or anyone who wants
to help) to benefit the USA is to get the
training needed to lead US troops in Iraq
and work to _keep_ them from getting KIA.
\_ I do not think any skills Sameer acquired while getting extremely
wealthy in the dot com glory days will translate well into our
glorious quagmire in Iraq. As the above poster says, Sameer
should have just gotten a dog if he wants to be needed.
\_ There's a big need for IT type of personelle
\_ Sameer is certainly not going to OCS to contribute
IT services for the tar pit war effort.
\_ seriously, I read his blog and don't fault him for his reasons, or
the tenacity to get him where he is, in spite of being well over
normal cutoff recruitment age. hat's off to him! -ERic
\_ I think early 30s is not over the cutoff age these days
\_ Me thinks he just needs to get laid and settle down.
Less complaints, less bitching, more homey.
\_ At least according to his blog, it is for the Marines. The
army has raised their cutoff age, apparently the maries have
not.
\_ read the damn blog, he talks about it there. 29 is the cutoff
for Marines OCS, though exemptions can be gotten on an
individual basis, as Sameer has gotten. Cutoff for other
branches of the military is up in the low 40's now. If you
want the exact details talk to a recruiter. -Eric |
| 4/3 |
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| www.creativedestruction.com/blog -> www.creativedestruction.com/blog/ Creative Destruction May 17, 2006 More on discipline In my previous post on discipline, I neglected to mention one key piece of the equation. It isn't like a regular job where you can just quit if you get bored and become interested in something else. Some people regard this as a drawback, because it limits your flexibility and options. I, on the other hand, see this as a feature, rather than a bug. Over the years I haven't really stuck to one thing for very long. Even the professional high-point of my life so far, running C2Net, was something I was engaged in full-time for only two full years. With the serious commitment of joining the Marine Corps, I will not have the flexibility to do this. Furthermore, I've had a great deal of flexibility in my life due to having had early financial success with C2Net. This is generally considered a good thing, but it has led me to stagnation and lack of direction, as noted above. With the ability to live pretty much anywhere and no requirement to work to pay the bills, I have had the freedom to switch from thing to thing at will. Further, this wealth of choice, while generally assumed to be a good thing, could be a negative factor in one's life, it could be argued. The Paradox of Choice, but the basic thesis is that the greater choices we have in this modern world lead to less happiness, not more. Now I would not of course translate that into a policy prescription that would result in less choices in the marketplace, but from a personal fulfillment and happiness perspective, I realize now that less choice would very likely be good for my happiness and fulfillment. If I live where they tell me and do the job that they tell me to do, I will not have to worry that perhaps I would be happier if I made some different decision, living elsewhere or doing something else. I'll be doing what I'm told and I'll be forced to make the most of it, rather than constantly wondering if I should change my job or living situation to improve my happiness and fulfillment. Comments May 16, 2006 3) To develop my physical abilities and mental discipline The first half of this reason is obvious -- to develop my physical abilities. The first step of course is training so that I will be selected for OCS, which will be its own reward. This piece isn't really that big of a deal, I have discovered. In starting to run I have realized that I really enjoy it, and I could easily come up with goals that would develop my physical ability better that don't involve joining the Marine Corps. I could quite easily start training for a marathon or triathalon, and in fact the Marine Corps-focused training is a little bit annoying at this point because I figure it would be great fun to start training for a small triathalation or a marathon or something along those lines. But that's not a serious problem, as I figure I can easily get into the marathon or triathalon thing once I am commissioned. The second half of the equation is the important piece, the mental discipline. I have a solid level of mental acuity, but I think that because intellectual/mental activity has come easily over the years, I haven't built up any mental discipline. I have a short attention span and a limited ability to do things which bore me. I am kind of a slob and I don't take the effort to keep my life as "squared away" as I should. To be able to put in the effort to keep my rack and gear squared away even when I am completely exhausted. To be able to stand and stare straight ahead and count the hairs on the back of the neck of the guy in front of me for extended periods. Comments Racelab When I started my training program, I signed up with a personal trainer, thinking that would help me motivate and improve better than otherwise. That seemed to be going well, as my crunches and pullups were improving, but my running wasn't really getting any better. And it turned out that everything I'd been reading about running contradicted the things that this trainer was telling me to do. This guy said I should focus on getting my 1-mile speed up to six minutes, then focux on extending that out to three miles. Everything I've read though, and every runner I've talked to, has said that I should build up endurance first, then speed. Also, he said I should gain weight and bulk up, but the key to running is not bulk, but lean powerful muscles for endurance rather than pure strength. So I figured that this guy doesn't really know what he's talking about, and I fired him. Racelab which I'd seen t-shirts from during the recent Ironman Arizona. They seem to know what they are talking about with respect to running. I am signing up with them tomorrow, I will report back how it goes. I'm focusing more on running now than the pullups and crunches, although I am still doing the a Armstrong program for pullups and about 200 crunches per day to get my abs in shape -- but I figure since I improved on that so quickly I can slow down the effort there a little bit and let the running catch up, because I will probably be at max pullups and crunches well before I am even close to max running speed, at this rate. Comments Forerunner 205 update So I've had a chance to use the Forerunner 205 for a week now, and I really enjoy it. Yesterday I woke up and went out for my run to discover that my nifty GPS wasn't turning on, it was stuck saying 'BATTERY CHARGING COMPLETE' even though it wasn't plugged in. I had to go back home and grab my regular watch to do my workout with. I tried to reset it with all kinds of combinations of keypresses but nothing worked. It clearly wasn't completely broken as I could plug it in to the computer and it would accept info and upload info, but it just wouldn't do anything else. So I went to REI, told them it was broken, and the guy there didn't know what was up, so he gave me a replacement. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning, and I had the same problem! Unfortunately, Garmin tech support wouldn't open for another hour, and I had to go out and run. When I got home I called tech support and after waiting on hold for about forty minutes the tech support guy told me how to reset the device, which worked. Then he told me that I could get a software upgrade on-line, which will hopefully prevent this from happening again. One would think that the reset sequence (Press mode and lap at the same time) would be in the user's manual so I wouldn't have to spend so long on phone to tech support, but that was not the case. Ah well, the problem should be fixed now, so it should be ok. I picked up a new bicycle today, so I can ride bike on days that I'm not rowing, to build up my cardio-endurance. I bought the cheapest road bike at REI and it was still expensive. Oh well, a better bike will be more pleasant to ride, so it will be worth it I'm sure. Comments May 10, 2006 This best-selling book really exists I've recently gotten back in touch with an old friend, Srini, who tells me that he has a book that will be released shortly! Sticker Nation is a book full of the sorts of stickers that have made him famous. They are irreverent and funny, but most of all I enjoy the irony which is right out there up front for everyone to see and enjoy. Note: This book actually exists, according to Srini, so don't go buying tons of copies like you did for my best-selling book that didn't exist, expecting never to have to pay for your order. Comments May 09, 2006 Forerunner 205 report So I tried out this Garmin Forerunner 205 this morning during my run. I set it up for the workout I wanted to do, and it complained at me when I was going too slow, and it told me when it was time to rest, the whole thing! I got home and uploaded the results to the little program on my PC and it gave me a little map of my pace along the various bits of the run. It's really helpful to keep my pace up when I am getting a bit tired and want to slow down, it is like having someone there next to me telling me to keep up! Comments May 08, 2006 2) To give something back to my country, which has given me so much In my first post discussing my new plan to apply for a commission, I've already explained reason #1, about having people ... |
| www.creativedestruction.com/archives/2006_04.html May 2006 April 18, 2006 My new plan As I noted here recently, I've finally come up with a plan that addresses the concern I had over "peaking early" -- to a certain degree this plan is a bit backwards. Most people would do what I'm doing now when they are in their early twenties, and then perhaps do what I did in my early twenties in their early thirties. But whatever, I've never claimed to have a traditional life path. So over the years I've realized that in order to be fulfilled I need to be doing something that matters. That's kind of broad of course, so reflection has indicated that it means I need to be doing something whereby people are relying on me. As an entreprenuer, I hope that I can grow a company to the point where I am replaceable, but the actual process of getting there means that people are relying on me -- my customers, my employees, my suppliers. After selling C2Net, finishing my job there, I spent a very rewarding amount of time helping Jenna and Reilly get back on their feet. I provided stability and a stable male persona in Reilly's life which although I am sure didn't prevent Reilly from being hurt in the whole affair, it did prevent long-term scarring. Now, Jenna has remarried to a great guy who can pay the bills and be a good father to Reilly. Although I plan to continue to play an important role in their lives, I am no longer needed. At this point in my life I could just disappear and the world really would be no worse off. So I've been trying to find a role for myself in these past few years, with limited luck. I've been a bit risk averse lately, which I think has been part of the problem. Upon reflection, I contemplated how and why I managed to do well, both with my company and with helping out Reilly. And the fundamental fact is that I was willing to take significant risks in order to accomplish great things and to follow my heart. But I'd been exploring things in a half-assed manner recently. To take a significant risk, to follow my heart, and to find a role where I matter. an article in the Wall Street Journal by Matt Pottinger explaining why he gave up journalism to join the Marines. I'd sort of considered military service over the past few years, but I thought I was too old. The age limit for being commissioned as an officer of Marines is 29, and I'm 31, and not all that fit. Here is this journalist, the same age as me, and starting out less fit than I am, who managed to get an age waiver and be commissioned as an officer of Marines. So this January I looked up the Phoenix Officer Selection Officer and started down the road of applying to go to Officer Candidate School and being commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. I went on my trip to Russia and Ukraine as sort of a last check to see if anything else really appealled to me, and it didn't so in March I started the application process. Pottinger was when he started: The day before I left Thailand I decided to do my first physical training and see what happened. The air quality in downtown Bangkok didn't help, but the biggest problem was me. I ducked into Lumpini Park in the heart of the city where I was chased around by a three-foot monitor lizard that ran faster than I did. At one point I found a playground jungle gym and managed to do half a pull-up. When I started in March I could do 8 pullups, 43 crunches in 2 minutes, and run my 3 miles in 30:30. I need to get my crunches up to 100, my pullups up to 20, and my run time down to 18 minutes. If I can get all that done by August, then I have a shot at entering the OCC class that starts in October, and if I make it through those ten weeks, I can be commissioned in December. While there is some overlap between my reasons for wanting to be a Marine and Lt. As I noted in the preamble to this post, my desire stems from my need to play a role where people are relying on me. As an officer of Marines I will be responsible for the well-being of the Marines under my command. There are other reasons of course, which I will outline here over time, as I train over the next few months so that I can be fit enough to go to OCS, and then hopefully succeed there, so that I will be able to have the honor and privilege of serving as a United States Marine Corps Officer. Why I Didn't Reenlist by a local former Marine libertarian/anarchist Catholic about why he didn't reelist in the Corps and one reason he noted is the "heresy" of thinking that soldiers are the ones who grant us our rights, and he references the famous Father Davis O'Brien quote: It is the Soldier not the reporter, who has given us Freedom of the press. It is the Soldier not the poet, who has given us Freedom of speech. It is the Soldier not the campus organizer, who has given us the Freedom to demonstrate. It is the Soldier not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, who salutes the Flag, who serves beneath the Flag and whose coffin is draped by the Flag, who allows the protester to burn the Flag. He objects to this, because of course these rights are inalienable. I always figured by "allowed" he meant "prevents those who would take that right away from taking it away" rather than "granting that right" and therefore the quote resonates, because although the soldier is not granted the right, I do believe that the first line of defense for these rights is the soldier, not the lawyer or the reporter, or the campus organizer, or whatever. I hadn't looked at the specific wording of the Greenwood song but it did strike me that the song does say "won't forget the men who died/Who gave that right to me" rather than "won't forget the men who died/Who protected that right for me" -- sure, the second one doesn't fit in with the meter of the song, but words do matter. The Toby Keith song, as far as I can I'm curious then what the general perspective is. Do people really understand what "inalienable" means, and is this quibble I have over the use of give/allow vs. protect merely a semantic issue, or does it actually indicate that people don't really think that our rights are inalienable, and that the government gives us these rights, rather than just protecting them. |
| www.creativedestruction.com/archives/2006_05.html Later G Burly called to inform me that the tank, so recently relined with such high hopes and such thick rubber, had sprung a leak, so they'd have to remove all the stone facing and have another go at it. Given that the replacement of the liner was their response to the generally recognized failure of the great Patching Offensive of the Spring of 06, I wonder whether this will, in fact, be the final detail that leads to success. TrackBacks May 30, 2006 Marines retain the best WIth the stresses of the war, much has been said about how the military, in particular, the Army, has been lowering its standards. The Army has, for example, raised the age limit for enlistment to 34 and is offering huge signing bonuses. The Marine Corps, on the other hand, has not lowered its standard, and doesn't appear to lack quality officer candidates, as is indicated by the Phoenix OSO making 250% of his mission (quota) for the year. But the general quality has been anecdotal, which led me to question what is the actual story here. Turns out that the anecdotal story is generallly correct, and the quality of Marines has not gone down under the current stresses. It is the best Iraq-war documentary I have seen to date. I've watched Gunner Palace, Occupation: Dreamland, and Off to War. This documentary really made it seem like you really had a glimmer of understanding of what it was like to be there with the guys. Everything else I've seen really seemed to lack context, yet this one really gave you the impression you knew where everything that was happening fit into the picture of the overall story. Gunner Palace was overly concerned with rap music and soldiers dancing and rapping for the camera. TrackBacks May 27, 2006 Will Wright I read an article this morning in the Wall Street Journal about Will Wright, designer of "The Sims" and the upcoming "Spore." I remember meeting Will Wright a few years back at the Thunderhill Rally School. What's particularly interesting is that I didn't remember that I'd met him until the final bit of the article when it mentioned the "Stupid Fun Club," because as I recall, when I asked him what he "did", he didn't mention that he was continuing to work on videogames (he had mentioned in passing that he had founded Maxis, which led to some conversation about friends in common, etc. This article is also amusing because it mentions his participation in the Cannonball Run some years ago. I remember at the rally school he'd mentioned that he used to do rallies, but he didn't go into much detail. I also got to meet his daughter Cassidy and his Stupid Fun Club partner Mike Winter at the rally school. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they continued their interest in rally with the CRS, as I haven't seen them since then. I discovered this emailing with an old friend who is a pipe organist. Any instrument that can "shake the entire building" (and generally these aren't small buildings we are talking about) gets my vote. I am very glad and satisfied to see that the "water feature" at James Lileks's house is finally working, but I guess he isn't. Perhaps if he built it himself, he would have been able to fix it himself, and felt better about the whole situation. TrackBacks May 24, 2006 Canals of Phoenix I've been exploring the Canals of Phoenix lately on the bicycle. It's odd having a road bike because I have to be particularly conscious of looking for paved paths to cycle on, rather than not worrying about that as I did in the past when I had a hybrid. So the other day I decided to take a ride and I picked this one canal that's on my map, the Grand Canal. I rode towards downtown Phoenix and got on the canal at the edge of downtown, and discovered that this canal is not nearly as pleasant as the nice pretty cross cut canal near the Phoenix Zoo. This canal runs through the hood, and I spent a good deal of my time dodging broken glass bottles on the path. Today I decided to check out the Indian Bend Wash, which was a really nice ride. This isn't really a 'canal-path' but a path along this wash that is full of parks and golf courses, that goes through Scottsdale. This was a nice little path, but it was a bit crowded as the time progressed past sunrise. Comments May 21, 2006 The War I recently sent out a mass email to inform people I've known but haven't necessarily been in touch with for a while about my decision, and the response has been interesting. I really appreciate the comments and support I've received from people, particularly the support I've received from sources I would not have expected. One interesting thing that I noted however is that people have commented, well, you can give something back and serve etc. by doing something less military, like the Peace Corps, some NGO, etc. While there are rather obvious reasons why these angles don't actually serve the five purposes I've outlined in previous posts, I've realized that I've neglected to mention one major reason, perhaps the biggest reason of them all. So these fascists have been at war against us since 1979. When considering what to do with myself I went back to first principles. Was it because I liked the technical challenge of protecting privacy? It was because I thought that privacy needed to be protected in order to preserve free speech. Of all the liberties we hold, free speech is the most valuable. So I started C2Net, discovered that there was no market for privacy, shifted over to another speech-enabling technology, and struck a blow for liberty by demolishing the United States cryptographic technology export-control regime. The biggest threat to free speech these days are the fascist thugs who believe that if you aren't a Muslim you have no rights and deserve to die. Or, even if you are a Muslim, if you don't subscribe to the vision of Islam to which they subscribe, you also have no rights and deserve to die. These thugs don't want to impose their fascist restrictions simply on the people who live within their own repressive regimes. No, they want to export their intolerance and hatred around the world. Salman Rushdie isn't safe, living in liberal England, because he wrote a book that the theocrats didn't like. Theo van Gogh, a resident of the supposedly forward-looking, liberty-loving Netherlands, was murdered for producing a movie. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been exiled from her country and kicked out of the Dutch parliament because she dared to criticize Islam. Throngs of London Muslims have called for the beheading of anyone who would criticise Islam. Comedy Central has caved into the thugs and censored South Park because they're afraid for their employee's safety. Borders and Waldenbooks both stopped carrying a magazine because they thought the thugs would do violence in their stores. I used to think that lawyers were a good defense against the chilling effects of restrictions upon speech. We have a first amendment, if there's a restriction on speech we sue the government, we go to court, and it gets struck down. That's been great, and its worked well for a number of situations. They have used the threat of force to chill speech, and this threat of force, because it is not a function of any liberal government, will not be countered by anything other than force itself. I want to defend free speech from those who would kill to prevent its free exercise. Comments May 20, 2006 PFT 194 So I ran a PFT this morning. I was pretty satisfied with my pullups and crunches, as I managed to get 14 pullups, just under my goal of 15, and 93 crunches, just under my goal of 100. The running, however, was a full two and a half minutes below my target, 29:30, compared with my target 27:00. the target 221, which doesn't look so bad when you look at the total score, but still a long way from 300. Its extremely clear that what everyone says about how running is 90% mental is totally correct. For the final dash to the finish, the other candidates who finished before me ran back and helped me motivate to get to the end, and during that last period I managed to sprint to the end at a 5:30 pace. So its clear to me that I could have pushed harder through the other periods of the run, but I was unab... |