Nope, no military service. I do make a point of refining my writing style, with an underlying avoidance of repeating words leading to a reliance on implied words. Comes in part from frequent blogging, where reader attention spans are short and criticism for imperfection & incompleteness abound - to wit, high density content pays off. I've also always been of few words, to the point where one friend dubbed me "Noun Verb" because I tended to talk that way. My software is similar, concentrating on terse clarity, heavy on references and semantic implications. I'll spend a lot of time minimizing what's published, be it English or C++. Music of Philip Glass & other minimalists was rather influential and formative.
Upshot: it's just me.