Really, it is all about me. Well at least it's how I've evolved professionally and landed into my current position as an Information Architect at imc2.
I was born a poor...............................wait, that's a different story.
Let's start back in 1986 when I joined the Navy. Now I didn't join the military to shoot people or get shot at, so I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a relatively safe field of work. The military was a gateway for me, it was a way to learn a trade and make more than $8 an hour from the top of a oil derrick. Four years working in the oilfield and I escaped with all my fingers, that's how I measure success.
I chose the Navy rate of Electronics Warfare Technician. Yes, this sounds very cool and it was, but I chose this field for two main reasons; advancement was fast (more $$) and I would end up spending more than 2 of the 6 years that I enlisted in schools learning about electronics and how to troubleshoot equipment. It was later that I learned how mission critical and exhilarating it was to be an Electronics Warfare Technician.
During my fast track advancement in the Navy, I became responsible for the operational readiness of a highly sophisticated defensive system. During peace time, a pretty cushy job, but we trained for the worse case scenarios and you never want your equipment to fail and if it does, you better fix it fast or people may die.
Enter my world of technical manuals, these manuals contained maintenance and troubleshooting procedures. We aren't talking about few hundred pages or a few thousand, but tens of thousands of pages consisting of 16+ volumes and many were 11x17 sized pages; we're talking a lot of information. Now I could spend a lot of time explaining my Navy training and how a very famous government contractor developed these manuals, instead I'll summarize. The manuals sucked, they were horrible and at times useless, the great Navy instructors at Pensacola, Florida spent more time telling us what was wrong with these manuals than actually repairing the equipment. We learned about all the errors and endless troubleshooting circles, we learned to never believe the results and relied more on the instructors personal notes than this huge pile pages. Don't be mislead, this was some very complex equipment, but the people that designed the system, were not the same people that designed the manuals to repair the system. This was a classic example of a bad user experience. Let's move on before my blood pressure goes up.
My wife and I loved Pensacola and we looked forward to going back for a 4 year shore rotation so I could teach others all the tricks needed to maintain and repair this equipment. But that would never happen, fate had something else in store for us. Would you believe it was because of those horrible technical manuals?
Stayed tuned for part 2 and learn how a group of sailors find themselves landlocked.
Go on...
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