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I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

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Re: I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

#61
post #60
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen National Guard and active-duty soldiers quelling any unrest recently .. the deployment to the west coast appears to be a mix of sleeping rough and unrequired performance theatre while the LAPD and state forces have things well in hand.

Ah yes, "things well in hand" https://ktla.com/news/local-news/city-officials-issue-curfew... >

Yeah, I've seen footage of two nights of the curfew going into effect .. zero need for federal troops, the locals had it covered.

I'm from a five eyes ally and the US looks weak with this banana republic behaviour.

Re: I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

#62
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you bring in people from other organizations, you usually give them titles that reflect their actual roles. Warrant officers are a leftover from an era when you had to be nobility to become a commissioned officer. Today a lieutenant is just a kid with a college degree, and a lieutenant colonel is someone who did an MBA and was promoted into middle management.

Warrant officers were a realization that you didn't want the only promotion path to be into management (commissioned officers) -- deep skill specialization is critical too.

Lack of social status was historically the key. The guys who knew how to operate the ship had some critical expertise, but because they lacked the social status of nobility (or a college graduate), they were made warrant officers instead of proper officers.

Roles that historically required higher education – doctors, lawyers, and chaplains – are typically commissioned officers. Air forces similarly have commissioned officers doing the actual fighting. While they are not in management positions, their status and responsibilities are comparable to commissioned officers in other branches. In some cultures, the same extends to special forces.

Re: I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

#64
post #12

Army press release: https://www.army.mil/article/286317/army_launches_detachment...

> The four new Army Reserve Lt. Cols. are Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer for Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer of Meta; Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer of OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former Chief Research Officer for OpenAI. Oh, great, vertical integration between the violence organizations and the three worst and most amoral companies in tech. I’m sure not…

If it makes you feel better, Bob McGrew is ex-Palantir too.

Re: I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

#69
post #8

What a joke - they couldn't 'serve' their advisory roles without playing dress-up and commissioning directly as Lt Cols?

It seems likely that the reason they've accepted these titles is because they believe that they will be given roles in which they have direct command authority, not just the role of advisor.

However, it also places them in Trump's direct chain of command as CinC. They might not have thought enough about that.

Re: I'm the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army

#70
post #66

I wonder what the incentives are here. I am a FAANG engineer with a clearance - but would gladly serve my country in a role if the pay cut wasn't so severe

Today? In this current version of America? You like the idea of being deployed internally against protestors? Or maybe, Greenland sounds like a nice holiday spot?
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