Top Gun: Lessons Learned From Fighter Pilots To Apply To the Tech Industry
Now let’s be honest. A Fighter Pilot giving life lessons? Lessons that you can apply to Tech? Where is the connection? Surprisingly, they can be applied to just about any kind of occupation. Being a Fighter Pilot is similar to Tech jobs to me as they both require very special methods of thinking through a problem. With experience in thinking in these methods, you’ll eventually develop phrases to live by.
I used to be an Avionics Engineer for Airbus, working on Coast Guard planes, so I’ve had the chance to absorb wisdom from many former Pilots that decided to change it up and fly CG. In addition, many of my close friends are active-duty Pilots in either the USAF or Navy, so I constantly get exposed to new idioms and new ways of saying old ones!
#1: Train like you fight.
Training in Military Aviation is taken extremely seriously. With countless regulations and rules to the simple fact that there are lives at stake, the training is treated as though you are actively going to war.
This means every project you’re working on, for fun or otherwise should be treated as though you’re creating it for one of those FAANG companies!
#2: Keep your knots up.
Fighter jets measure speed in a unit called “Knots”. 1 Knot equates to ~1.15 MPH. With that knowledge, these jets operate best at extremely high speeds, ~450kts or so (517 MPH).
This means that you need to keep that speed in momentum in all aspects of your professional career. “Knots” in our case can be anything: Money, Resources, Contacts, Etc.
#3: Keep your scan going.
Fighter Pilots have to keep a level of “Situational Awareness” at all times when in the cockpit. This could be doing a full sweep of all the sensors and gauges or scanning across the horizon.
For us, that would mean to not focus all your attention, 100% on one singular thing in your project. By doing so, it leaves you open to having something else come up and bite you.
#4:Lost sight, lost fight
In a Dogfight, losing sight of your opponent means almost certain doom. You can’t dodge any shots your opponent makes if you can’t see them!
This means that your project will suffer greatly if you were to lose sight of the vision or lose sight of the scope you need to stay in. Especially if you were to lose sight of yourself!
#5: You can only tie the record for low flight.
A plane’s altimeter only goes to 0. This means the lowest you can fly is the same as everyone else, just 0.
When you feel like you’ve hit “rock bottom” and don’t know where to go; that just means that you’ve hit a point that many more before you have hit or are in the company of many more at that moment! The only thing left to do is gain altitude and climb back up. Learn from what got you there and keep your knots up.
#6: Don’t turn back into a fight you’ve already survived.
Fighter pilots need to know when to “Bug out” or “Get out of the fight and live to fight another day”. There’s no reason for you to go back into the fight and end your story after you go out unscathed.
For us, this means that we need to know when to step back and say “That’s enough.” This could be to prevent burnout, or maintain morale in the team even though management is pushing for some stretch goals. So it’s up to you to know where to draw the line for the long-term health of you and your team.
#7: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Firing missiles in a fighter jet is a very in-depth process. One of the steps is to make sure that you’re within the missile’s operating envelope.
For us, that could mean that we need to operate within the appropriate scope of our project and try not to deviate from it. Stay in your operation envelope and take those shots!
#8: If you’re not “cheating”, you’re not trying.
This doesn’t literally mean to cheat, say by breaking laws. Rather, it means to capitalize on any disadvantages with your advantages.
If you have a competitor to your product and they show a disadvantage or weakness, jump on it and build something that attacks it! If you have a teammate that is suffering due to weakness, use your strengths to supplement them and uplift them.
#9: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
This is a very fancy way of saying “Know your priorities and keep them prioritized.”
#10: Stay ahead of the airplane.
Fighter jets move at hundreds of miles per hour, so a pilot isn’t going to just stare at the nose and fly like that. Doing that is limiting the information intake and opening up an unexpected event to occur.
This means that you should be looking ahead of where you’re at and anticipating any changes that might come your way.
#11: If you don’t know who the world’s greatest fighter pilot is, it ain’t you.
Everyone who has ever seen the movie Top Gun knows of the mentality of “Who is the best?” and what that means in the world of Aviation.
You can replace any occupation in this one with anything you do. If we were all to strive to be the best in our field, everyone wins.
#12: There’s nothing more dangerous than a nugget with 500 hours.
A “Nugget” is just the New Guy. First time on the job and totally new to the environment.
As a Junior developer, just putting in those hours and cycles makes you more and more “dangerous.” By that 500 hour mark, you’ll be well versed in how your company works and the path laid before you. Maybe by that milestone, you won’t even be a Junior Programmer anymore!
This article was inspired by Ward Carroll. His video on the subject helped me see the connections to the Tech field and led me to share these same idioms I’ve heard many, many times and help someone that isn’t sure how to process being a new programmer in this vast and scary world of becoming a Programmer of any kind.