> [*] KOG = Kindly Old Gentleman: Of those four things, he was at most two.
I must not be hip to the joke. What's the fourth thing?
Probably breaking it down into [ kindly, old, gentle, man ]
I must not be hip to the joke. What's the fourth thing?
Ex-Navy nuke here; I had to interview with the KOG [*] to get into The Program.
My guess is that most people on HN would do fine in a Rickover-style program — albeit likely after some culture shock. After 50 years I can still recite my own interview with the man pretty much verbatim. I served only five years on active duty; I've forgotten most of what I knew about the specific subject of nuclear engineering. But the no-bullshit, face-the-facts general management style that Rickover created and propagated in the nuclear Navy was likely the single biggest professional influence of my life. To this day I regularly quote Rickover to my law students: You get what you INspect, not what you EXpect.
And in the fleet, most of us nukes were regular people, not nearly as abrasive or peremptory as he could be.
[*] KOG = Kindly Old Gentleman: Of those four things, Rickover was at most two.