Military Rationalities and Irrationalities

In response to the question

“Does anyone happen to know of reliable ways for increasing one’s supply of executive function, by the way? I seem to run out of it very quickly in general.”

(Kaj_Solata)

I posted that my military experience seems effectively designed to increase executive function. Some examples of this from myself and metastable are

Uniforms- not having to think about your wardrobe, ever, saves a lot of time, mental effort, and money. Steve Jobs and President Obama are known for also using uniforms specifically for this purpose.

PT- Daily, routinized exercise. Done in a way that very few people are deciding what comes next.

-Maximum use of daylight hours

Med Group and Force Support-Minimized high-risk projects outside of workplace (paternalistic health care, insurance, and in many cases, housing and continuing education.)

After a moment’s thought it occurred to me that there are some double-edged swords in Military Rationality as well, some of which lead to classic jokes like ‘Military Intelligence is an oxymoron.’

Regulations- A select few ‘experts’ create policies which everyone else is required to follow at all times. Unfortunately these experts are never (never ever) encouraged to consider knock-on effects. Ugh.

Anybody else have insights on the military they want to share here? I feel a couple of good posts on increasing executive function might come out of a discussion on the rationalities and irrationalities of the armed forces.