People reading this strictly as an indictment of government work are utterly missing the point. My own career spans decades, large companies and small, old and new, and a few stints of government work as well.<p>The thing this reminds me most of all is a <i>very</i> time-worn copy of Arthur Bloch's <i>Murphy's Law: and other reasons things go ƃuoɹʍ</i>. You can find most them here: <a href="http://www.murphyslaws.net/edition.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.murphyslaws.net/edition.htm</a><p>It was at a highway rest stop on one of the long Interstate routes favored by aerospace engineers in the late 1970s, and I still think I've learned more practical knowledge from it than just about any other book I've ever read, though realizing the import of some of the apparently humorous laws (many of which were actually said with all seriousness in their original expression) has taken a long time to register.<p>Rule 24 from the Nasa piece should register with many here:<p><i>One must pay close attention to workaholics - if they get going in the wrong direction, they can do a lot of damage in a short time. It is possible to overload them and cause premature burnout but hard to determine if the load is too much, since much of it is self generated. It is important to make sure such people take enough time off and that the workload does not exceed 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 times what is normal.</i><p>Another huge lesson, particularly for the younger people on HN, is that if you find yourself working at an organization in which the rules here are being consistently violated, <i>you are working at a sick organization and/or have a grossly incompetent manager</i>.<p>I've had management all over the map. One of the best had a great deal of government (and military) experience. He wasn't overtly technical (though he knew more than he let on), but saw when goals were and weren't being met, and would ensure that resources were made available and barriers removed, often without asking. Two specific instances come to mind: I required additional systems permissions for a specific task, told him, he was on the phone to the responsible person and I had the privileges within ten minutes (I've worked at shops where this is a 24-48 hour, or longer, task). Where my workflow made heavy use of multiple terminals and screenspace, and secondary large monitors were a rarity, when one freed up it was on my desk the next day without my asking for it.<p>And when business conditions went south (there were a <i>lot</i> of people hit), our parting conversation was direct, to the point, and personal. What I <i>didn't</i> have to deal with was weeks or months of anxiety leading up to that point.<p>The gig following that one, with a young manager in start-up space, was a polar opposite, and, at least from a management perspective, a strongly negative contrast (though not the worst I've had).