Cynicism as a Survival Strategy

Risk management. Every one has some form of risk management process. In the Army it follows the diagram below. Basically, you make your plan, then go back and review it and identify all the areas where something could go wrong, and then implement controls on those areas.  Then implement those controls, supervise execution, and evaluate them post mission. Rinse and repeat.

However, this approach presupposes that you have enough experience in doing this operation to know when and where something could go wrong.  This approach works okay for routine events, but not for infrequent, but potentially catastrophic events.   EOD takes a very different approach.  First, we assume that everything is in the worst possible condition.  We have a list that covers just about every eventuality, even the very remote ones.  These are the famous “safeties” we learn in school.  We take all precautions associated with those safeties. At the start of every incident we assume that whatever is there, is the worst possible item, in the worst possible condition. Then we are taught to only relax from these precautions when you have personally observed that they are not in play.  Let me say that again: 1) assume worst case, 2) take every precaution, 3) only relax precautions when you have personally verified that they are no longer applicable. No one else thinks like this.  I have worked with people with graduate degrees in safety engineering and management and they do not do this.  This intensive training colors our outlook for the rest of our careers.  Your EOD Solider will always assume that everything is in the worst possible condition, unless personally verified.  Hence, we MAY have gained a reputation for being cynical about everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. However, and this is an important caveat, it will not deter us from taking action.  So it’s a very strange kind of “yeah it’s all messed up, but whatever, I/We will get the job done.” 

Lately I have been seeing a lot of posts about the “Stockdale Paradox”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale#The_Stockdale_Paradox The idea that “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” The EOD version of the paradox goes even further. It’s “start with the assumption that everything is in the worst possible condition, but never lose faith that you can deal with it”. Because, you know, that’s your job.

So the follow on corollary to this, is that if you take young people and train them to assume the absolute worst, most dangerous situations, and then tell them they have to go deal with it anyway, and if you want them to be enthusiastic and competent, you are going to have to engender in them a high level of self confidence. I mean, a really high level of self confidence. The kind of self confidence that annoys other people. But really, that’s a necessary out come of the training, which is in itself necessary for enthusiastic competence and ultimately, survival in an extremely demanding profession. Besides, no one rally wants a bomb tech that is not confident. Just like no one wants a surgeon who is not confident. Or as this AT&T commercial puts it: “Just okay is not okay”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFElTWAr–Y

So the next time someone is complaining about how cynical EOD troops are, and maybe a little bit, let’s say “self confident”, about their own abilities.  Let them know this is not a character flaw, this is an outgrowth of their training, and an essential part of EOD culture that serves to keep you alive in very demanding circumstances.