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Comment by sametmax | Hacker News Reader

It makes sense in the military, since as an institution it requires its individual members to have much less freedom and autonomy.

But if a company needs to use technics from the military, something is wrong. Life is not war.

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The word "company" itself is military in origin, Latin "companio", soldiers who lived and ate together in a mess/barracks. In the modern day armies still use the term, several platoons make a company, several companies make a battalion.

Schools and sports teams also have uniforms, if that helps set your mind at ease...

I don't think it's sane to mix linguistic origin and social aspirations, especially when it's about comparing the civil and military life.

I don't think it's sane

Thanks for your opinion, but you are completely wrong. The military and commercial worlds have been cross-pollinating each other's organisational ideas for centuries. The fundamental problem is the same: one of coordinating large groups of people to achieve a common goal via a hierarchical structure.

The way you think is very dangerous.

I think the parent is observing reality rather than saying things should be this way in an ideal world.

Observing established patterns is dangerous?

Taking small similarities between 95% of society vs a specific entity designed to manage dangerous crisis to justify anything. In that case dress code, which is also overkill.

You do know there are other languages out there where such a comparison doesn't hold?

The military's goal is to be highly precise and effective. A business's goal is the same.

The military's goal is to give a job to young men who'd otherwise be causing trouble, and to kill people when the guys in suits find it necessary

This is no longer all that true. A lot of "trouble" one finds, even as a teenager, can keep you out of the military. You might be able to get a special waiver. After all, they want to only enlist upstanding citizens into the military. The days of offering young offenders military service rather than legal trouble is basically over.

It does still remain on of the US's largest jobs programs, though I'm not sure this is the goal of the military. It does make reducing military spending rather tricky since so many livelihoods depend on it.

Most people can agree in the goal of militaries. Not on companies. Valve, apple and github work in very different ways.

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