My daily grind at NSA & related ramblings

I was an Army Arabic linguist assigned to them from 2018 to 2021. For most of it, I was on the night shift from 1500 (3 pm) to 0100 (1 am) 4 nights per week. It was good schedule as it got me out of a lot of Army bullwinkle like group PT. I'd come in, check my email, what the previous shift did, and any instructions they left for us. Then I'd spend the rest of time listening to intercepted audio clips called cuts. I'd usually listen to at least 100 per night. Many of my peers of similar rank and experience might listen to 10. If a cut had intel value, someone would transcribe it, and that transcription would get checked by someone else. Then it would go into a report which 50 people might read. Those people would be various higher ups in the military and government. Less 1% of the intercepted audio got checked and about 1% of that had any intel value. To help pass the time, I read the news, classified reports, NSA archives, and Wikipedia while I listened. I wasn't much of a transcriber, so I figured scanning as many cuts as possible was the best use of my time. It turns out I had the right idea. The odds of any cut being important were about the same, so the logical action was to just listen to as many as possible after some filtering. My approach was criticized a few times before I was vindicated. 

It was a low stress job for the most part. No one was shooting at us, and we could pretend to be civilians in our free time. When I got off shift, I'd exercise on my own usually with a long walk around Barton Field on Fort Gordon. Then I'd go back to my barracks room, have a beer and a shot, and read the news or listen to music before going to be around 0400 and waking up around 1100. Excessive online training paperwork, and pointless classes were basically my only hassles. Even those get unbearable after a while. At NSA, I had to digitally sign umpteen digital agreements for access. Each one was many pages of legalese. My thinking was: I have to sign it to do this job, which trained hard for and am stuck in, and since there is no chance of modifying the agreement if I refuse any part of it, it doesn't matter if I read it or not. All these bureaucratic absurdities can drive people crazy and routinely do. 

When I got there in 2018, I had to sit through about 100 hours of PowerPoint before I actually got to do the job I'd already spent 3,000 hours training for. This was around the time that I got completely burned out on speeches, lectures, sermons, etc. I never liked them to begin with, but now, they're intolerable.

The pandemic really messed up my schedule. My hours kept getting changed, and there were several multiweek stretches where I barely left my room. The gyms were closed for months, and a curfew prevented my nightly walks. For my details on how I flamed out, see my autobiography, which is also posted on this site.

Derpetology: Story of My Life - part 1

The ending was painful, but I'm glad I made the journey. In high school, I wanted to be a military linguist, and I was able to do that just before the window of opportunity closed. Some people join the Army and get an early grave. I left with all the body parts I came in with and most of my sanity. The Army was not going to work out for me long-term for various reasons. The struggle to keep my weight down was tiresome enough. 

If I was still with NSA or one of their contractors, I'd be sitting, reading, listening, and typing in front of a screen for 40 hours per week. The pay and working conditions are good, at least compared to most other jobs I've had, but I don't think I'd be happy doing it for decades. Basically, my job would be a minor role in helping America meddle in the Middle East. That's been going on my entire adult life with disastrous results. It was great to get paid to learn another language because that's something I do for fun anyway. 

My code breaker application with them has been open for 4 years. Not sure how I did on the online tests, but I suppose it was good enough not to be rejected immediately. In the unlikely event they offered me that job or any other, I'd take it despite not wanting to move again or live in the DC metro area. When I ponder trends in US education, especially math, I wonder how NSA is going to fill its ranks. My guess is they will lower their standards since that's what the military and other large bureaucracies do. 

The situation with AI reminds me of the way the Soviets lagged because their system depended on copying and stealing technology from the West rather than innovating. But at least they were stealing from educated, intelligent people. All the students today using AI to cheat aren't even doing that. AI can't come up with original ideas, only sloppy remixes. 

My libertarian side is somewhat happy the dumbing down of everything will cause governments to fade into irrelevance.