9 Comments

I’m deeply saddened to see this come to an end. Your vignettes and experience were always intriguing and I took great pleasure in reading each piece. If you ever find yourself needing a software engineer to one-off a program, design and build a UI, automate a workflow or anything remotely close then don’t hesitate to reach out. I would be happy to assist or enlist others better than I to bring your ideas to life. Best of luck in the future, sir!

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Thank you Dakota, I'm really glad to hear my experience resonated. And everyone needs more software engineer friends they can call on.

I was in class yesterday and another vignette popped to mind. I plan to do a follow up post in a few weeks looking at some of the data I got from Downrange Data, but I think I'll still be posting here, just not at the pace I've held for the last four months.

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Ah, great news! Looking forward to it.

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But you didn't answer the lead prompt: What is next?

I came late to this blog, but I've found it engaging and thought provoking, which is funny because I have zero experience in the military and very little with data systems. What's happening next Erik?

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I always intended to follow up in a few weeks with a 'Data of Downrange Date' post looking at what I can derive from the metrics. In the meantime, I've got two podcast interviews in edits about Downrange Data.

I need to hunker down and write some essays for the War College. But, as I mentioned above to Dakota, I was in class yesterday and another two data vignettes were brought to mind. So now I have to write those up too. I'll continue to post here, just more intermittently. Watch this space, as I'm sure I'll keep writing. https://www.hardingproject.com/p/the-more-you-write

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I saw “closing thoughts”, and thought to myself, nah he’s not ending it is he? Bravo to you for such a fantastic collection of articles you created. I’ve used a number of them myself not only for writing inspiration, but also as a source for my own pursuit and application of data literacy. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more of your work in the future, but thank you for everything you have given thus far.

Last thought, I’m no green beret, but I do love stickers. Let me know if you get those going and I’ll be sure to pick one up.

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I'll still be posting here, just not at the pace I've kept up since June.

And I'll absolutely let you know on stickers.

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Your posts have been a glimmer of hope in the dark world of data illiteracy in the Army. I just taught my MCCC class a 30 minute data literacy class where 95% of the class unashamedly claimed they were data illiterate. It’s encouraging to have senior leaders in the Army like yourself paving the way and providing a good example. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this project!

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Reading this SubStack has been very illuminating, thanks for sharing your thoughts and best practices. More CDR's and CSM's need to be paying attention; I'd be willing to bet that we all have a few data hounds on our staffs that could generate great returns if we would only become literate enough to unleash them and use their products.

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