Men Against Fire
by S. L. A. Marshall · first published 1947
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…position. This was what the highly regarded Brigadier General Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, better known as S.L.A. Marshall, or ‘Slam,’ concluded in a series of military journal articles and in his book, Men Against Fire, about America’s World War II soldiers. " http://www.historynet.com/men-against-fire-how-many-soldiers... And: "This was a problem for the US military and its allies during World War II. New training…
on “Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit” ↗…https://www.gwern.net/docs/history/s-l-a-marshall/1988-spill...: > His surviving field notebooks show no signs of statistical compilations that would have been necessary to deduce a ratio as precise as Marshall reported later in "Men Against Fire".
on “Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon” ↗…When training infantry costs a million dollars, you have to economize by distinguishing who will be a state-sponsored killer, and who will shoot in the air out of compunction. http://www.amazon.com/Men-Against-Fire-Problem-Command/dp/08... I maybe wouldn't believe it, but I've seen it.
on “Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?” ↗…that he was ever collecting statistics. His surviving field notebooks show no signs of statistical compilations that would have been necessary to deduce a ratio as precise as Marshall reported later in Men Against Fire. The "systematic collection of data" that made Marshall's ratio of fire so authoritative appears to have been an invention.
on “Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit” ↗…that he was ever collecting statistics. His surviving field notebooks show no signs of statistical compilations that would have been necessary to deduce a ratio as precise as Marshall reported later in Men Against Fire. The "systematic collection of data" that made Marshall's ratio of fire so authoritative appears to have been an invention.
on “Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit” ↗Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall’s 1947 book Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command stated that only about 10-15% of men would actually take the opportunity to fire directly at exposed enemies. The rest would typically fire in the air to merely scare off…
on “Statement from Dario Amodei on Our Discussions with the Department of War” ↗> Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall’s 1947 book Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command stated that only about 10-15% of men would actually take the opportunity to fire directly at exposed enemies. The rest would typically fire in the air to merely scare off…
on “Statement from Dario Amodei on Our Discussions with the Department of War” ↗…paper over their failures. I think the author maybe over-corrects by leaning on the idea that "only small teams actually get stuff done", and honestly I don't think anyone should be using SLA Marshall/Men Against Fire as an analogy for like... office work (if nothing else, even if you take his words at face value, then the percentage of US infantry who fired their rifles went up from 15-25% in WW2 to ~50% in Korea…
on “"Collaboration" Is Bullshit” ↗that's pretty meta, the original book "Men Against Fire" likely had major parts based on embellished or falsified interviews https://books.google.com/books?id=azoGuGbwJK0C&pg=PT8&lpg=PT...
on “Tomorrow’s soldiers will have their reality augmented” ↗