Reddit mentions: The best occupational psychology books

I read a lot and am dating someone who has walls lined with books (literally, it's a bit scary, but great). Bourdain's shows are one of only a few things I'll watch on TV.

Anyway, I picked up a copy of Kitchen Confidential recently at a used book store and realized I'd never read any of his stuff. I was super impressed.

If you like it, I'd also recommend http://www.amazon.com/Big-Dead-Place-Menacing-Antarctica/dp/0922915997

It's another easy read. My favorite quote from any book is from it. I'm literally sitting her snorting thinking of it.

I just finished a book about a guy working in Antarctica, Big Dead Place:

> When Johnson went to work for the U.S. Antarctic Program (devoted to scientific research and education in support of the national interest in the Antarctic), he figured he'd find adventure, beauty, penguins and lofty-minded scientists. Instead, he found boredom, alcohol and bureaucracy. As a dishwasher and garbage man at McMurdo Station, Johnson quickly shed his illusions about Antarctica. Since he and his co-workers seldom ventured beyond the station's grim, functional buildings, they spent most of their time finding ways to entertain themselves, drinking beer, bowling and making home movies.

The book is quite funny, highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the subject, especially if you have ever considered trying to get a job down there.

Sure they are, if you actually start looking closely at the history of the military and warfare it's full of astounding acts of stupidity and incompetence.

Here's a good book on the subject, required reading for most officers in the British military and frankly pretty good for anyone in a management position.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychology-Military-Incompetence-Pimlico/dp/0712658890

Check out Big Dead Place by Nicholas Johnson. Pretty funny and interesting book.

The art of the tactful "no". https://www.amazon.com/Art-Saying-NO-Reclaim-Granted-ebook/dp/B074LZG7KS

Really they have books on this so the leadership doesn't have room to respond like that. Plus a good leader should recognize a valid no vs an avoidance of responsibility - hopefully.

Regarding US stations, there's really only two options for what you want to do:

1. Get a job there. You'd have to apply, like the rest of us, for a contractor position. These are typically the only people that remain on base for extended periods of time. There may be a few long-term grantee positions too, but those are rare and often highly specialized (e.g., IceCube, NASA/RadarSat, and similar employers).
   
   
2. Get a grant through the NSF Artists and Writers program. They would provide transportation and lodging while you do your thing. Note that you'll probably need to show a strong portfolio of previous work to be considered.
   
   BTW, have you seen Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World and, more recently, Anthony Powell's A Year on Ice? The latter would seem to be very similar to what you're proposing, although there is a lot more that could be said (more on people and their interactions as opposed to the Antarctic environment).
   
   P.S., Further reading: Nicholas Johnson's Big Dead Place, and Sara Wheeler's Terra Incognita.

There's been quite a lot of thought on this in the last couple of decades of search-and-rescue (SAR).

https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Search-Rescue-Ronald-Glaus/dp/1629011088

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3211853-lost-person-behavior

If you'd prefer to read about these things applied to real world SAR, Tom Mahood has a really interesting blog:

http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/

My sister got this for me as a gift. It helped with exactly what you ate describing and then some

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Saying-NO-Reclaim-Granted/dp/1549572741

I had to learn about Office Politics the Hard Way myself. ; (

A few of my ALL TIME favorites. Some go back a few years but helped me immensely:

• Secrets to Winning Office Politics
  
• Working with Difficult People
  
• The No A$$hole Rule
  
• The Art of Saying No.
  
  Don't read this at work! I read that somewhere. ; p

I've you've ever read about what it's like working in Antarctica, people there do silly shit all the time for the lulz.

Usually when I use this they end up being this book

Did you spend any time with Nicholas Johnson, author of Big Dead Place? One of my all time favorite books.

I prefer to think of Raytheon solely as the comedy authoritarian nitwits in Big Dead Place

Have you read The Big Dead Place? If so what did you think of it?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0922915997/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00

I read a really interesting memoir about being stationed at McMurdo. You’re essentially trapped in a building for months on end, and people tend to get a little odd after being there for a while. I think if you had a tendency to depression, it could really be exacerbated by the environment.

The book is titled Big Dead Place:

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dead-Place-Menacing-Antarctica/dp/0922915997/

Is life at McMurdo anything like the book Big Dead Place? It's an incredibly cynical account of a guy who went down there 10 or so years ago for a couple of seasons (including a winterover, I think - haven't read it in a few years) and worked in menial jobs.

He basically said it's boring, people are crazy, the bureaucracy is horrendous and they get through by drinking in secret dorm bars.

Not really, I think the most important factor is the length and applicability of the training. A WWI British army trained along pre war lines of superior rifle marksmanship would have been waste of time and just led to more dead tommies with even less results.

The thing about mass conscription is it widens the pool of intelligence and experience within a army. I'd suggest reading Dixion's "the Psychology of military incompetence." http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Military-Incompetence-Norman-Dixon/dp/0712658890

Where he examines a great tradition of Volunteer military who went conscript during WWI/II. The interesting analysis is how a volunteer military can be seen to self select for incompetent leadership due to the nature of peacetime vs war time army confounded by authoritarian type that will self select for military careers.

One can examine the US civil war with such an eye and note that very few Professional officers turned out to be any good and in the case of Sherman and Grant were ironically terrible officers until there was a war to fight yet were terrible "professional" officers.

Conscript vs Volunteers is a bit of a red herring, the issue is are you really willing to militarise your society through conscription, and how bad things are that it becomes a good idea.

Note that the 60/70s Conscript US army did quite well verses the Conscript North Vietnamese and volunteer Viet Cong, compare with the string of failures of the professional/volunteer French army verses the Vietnamese.