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How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

vivin.net

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Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#31

Post by chrissnell »

AYBABTME wrote: post #13

In 2009-2010, I was an infantry officer working in Kandahar (Afghanistan) Airfield's brigade HQ; a canadian HQ then. My job was to receive all the reports from the ground and fan that info out thorough the HQ and our higher ups/sides. The HQ was processing things like medical evacuations, support fire missions, contact reports. The way it was done was very inefficient, frustratingly so. For instance, a medical missio…

Battle Captain, right? I know exactly how you must have felt. I did this job as a 1LT in a bunker in Korea with shitty outdated MS Office and I never even thought to write a VBA app.

This sounds like an interesting startup idea: TOC software. It would be easy to write. I wonder how difficult it would be to sell to the Army.

I see from your Github that you, too, write Go. We should talk sometime.

http://github.com/chrissnell

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#32

Post by mpyne »

sp332 wrote: post #19
_3u10 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried to hire programmers? Now imagine you're not offering stock, and are offering well below market rates, but at least they'll have meals made for them.

Offer to do their laundry. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7817895

What has kept me in (after joining to get better pay during college) was medical services for my child and (related to that) the potential to get one of the few remaining good pensions available in the U.S.

In fact the latter thing is the only real incentive keeping many very talented members of the military (or at least the Navy) in technical fields at pay below the private sector.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#33

Post by toomuchtodo »

AYBABTME wrote: post #13

In 2009-2010, I was an infantry officer working in Kandahar (Afghanistan) Airfield's brigade HQ; a canadian HQ then. My job was to receive all the reports from the ground and fan that info out thorough the HQ and our higher ups/sides. The HQ was processing things like medical evacuations, support fire missions, contact reports. The way it was done was very inefficient, frustratingly so. For instance, a medical missio…

This is awesome. I'd love to buy you a beer or a coffee sometime!

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#34

Post by vivin »

chrissnell wrote: post #31
AYBABTME wrote: post #13

In 2009-2010, I was an infantry officer working in Kandahar (Afghanistan) Airfield's brigade HQ; a canadian HQ then. My job was to receive all the reports from the ground and fan that info out thorough the HQ and our higher ups/sides. The HQ was processing things like medical evacuations, support fire missions, contact reports. The way it was done was very inefficient, frustratingly so. For instance, a medical missio…

Battle Captain, right? I know exactly how you must have felt. I did this job as a 1LT in a bunker in Korea with shitty outdated MS Office and I never even thought to write a VBA app. This sounds like an interesting startup idea: TOC software. It would be easy to write. I wonder how difficult it would be to sell to the Army. I see from your Github that you, too, write Go. We should talk sometime. http://github.com/chr…

I'd like to write logistics software for the Army too. I could have replicated the system we were using in probably a month, maybe less.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#35

Post by Bahamut »

chrissnell wrote: post #8

Good on you. Sounds like you had great leadership. I've met a lot of smart Soldiers during my time in the Army. SSGs with PhDs, Specialists in law school, etc. It helps being in a branch that has a higher ASVAB requirement but there are smart guys in all of the branches. The military (especially the reserve forces) needs the skills that talented civilians like the folks here on HN have. The military also has a lot to…

+1 on the leadership count. I feel like that is the biggest benefit I have gotten from my experience as an infantry Marine. It also helps with humility - I feel it can become very easy to become egotistic in the money-fueled world of tech, and it's a humbling experience when you're working with people who don't care one iota about that.

Being in the military does suck for various reasons also though, but even that experience gives you lessons & motivation to take away from it.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#36

Post by Retric »

vivin wrote: post #34
chrissnell wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battle Captain, right? I know exactly how you must have felt. I did this job as a 1LT in a bunker in Korea with shitty outdated MS Office and I never even thought to write a VBA app. This sounds like an interesting startup idea: TOC software. It would be easy to write. I wonder how difficult it would be to sell to the Army. I see from your Github that you, too, write Go. We should talk sometime. http://github.com/chr…

I'd like to write logistics software for the Army too. I could have replicated the system we were using in probably a month, maybe less.

Sadly, having done this type of work before replacing existing systems with better UI is seen as a waste of resources and Bulding new systems involves rediculus levels of paperwork and changing requirements.

I once worked on a project that spent 7 years in the planning stages and they decided to take a 6 month break from development after the first demo to reevaluate things. Not because the demo had issues, they where not sure if this was the correct approach.

A different project was considered a complete success except we increased productivity to much.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#38

Post by WalterBright »

AYBABTME wrote: post #13

In 2009-2010, I was an infantry officer working in Kandahar (Afghanistan) Airfield's brigade HQ; a canadian HQ then. My job was to receive all the reports from the ground and fan that info out thorough the HQ and our higher ups/sides. The HQ was processing things like medical evacuations, support fire missions, contact reports. The way it was done was very inefficient, frustratingly so. For instance, a medical missio…

Writing code that saves lives is the best kind of code. You deserve that award. Thank you!

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#39

Post by kevbahr »

Thanks for sharing. I'm in the National Guard too. I've done some VBA to automate tactical operations center (TOC) reporting while deployed. I wrote an iPhone app / website for ammunition net explosive weight calculations (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dodic-calc/id660062276?mt=8). Working on a bunch more. I'm in the logistics field and would love to collaborate.

Re: How I got a medal from the Army for writing code

#40

Post by WhoBeI »

chrisBob wrote: post #4

Not bad for a motorpool guy. The place that I remember really needing some programmers was on the MI (military intelligence) side. They spend all of their time looking for patterns in data, and in 2009 it was still mostly done by hand. Plus that is where most of the smart Soldiers end up.

You'd want to keep some of those people around though. Computers are great for detecting anomalies and known patterns but you need the human brain to invent new patterns to look for.

Of course, sometimes a brain will invent a really weird pattern. You get agriculturally incompetent aliens, government employed blues brothers fans and all kinds of nonsense. I guess that's why intelligence gathering should be done in a group. More eyes results in less errors, right? :)

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