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Navy (reserve) vet here - I definitely agree that culture can be taught but unfortunately you have to find someone willing to learn. And unfortunately, most software developers aren't of the military "situationally adaptive" mindset but rather the "I'm a hot commodity where the hell is the ping pong table" mindset.

It's far easier for most young companies with ping pong tables to hire developers that like ping pong than actually endeavor to build a company culture and attempt to instill those values into their hires.




We are remarkably malleable. Being "situationally adaptive" is universally human.


You're correct and I was mistaken to give the impression that it is a "military-only" sort of thing - far from it. That being said, the human tendency to optimize for laziness often overrides our adaptive capabilities and instead pushes for maximizing comfort. The military does tend to train against this mindset (to varying degrees of success) - yet they are far from the only (or even most successful) of that ilk.




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