* Tags:: #🗞️Articles, [[My management principles values and practices|My Management Principles Values And Practices]] * Author:: [[jeff-atwood|Jeff Atwood]] (co-founder of Stack Overflow) * Link:: [Commandos, Infantry, and Police](https://blog.codinghorror.com/commandos-infantry-and-police/) * Source date:: [[2004-06-29]] * Finished date:: [[2020-12-11]] This idea comes from [[Accidental empires|Accidental Empires]] book [[robert-x.-cringely|Robert X]] (1993), and it's about a company needing three types of people along its lifetime: >[**Commandos**] They work hard, fast, and cheap, though often with a low level of professionalism, which is okay, too, because professionalism is expensive. Their job is to do lots of damage with surprise and teamwork, establishing a beachhead before the enemy is even aware that they exist. Are commandos the same than the ones in [[Ask HN. How bad should the code be in a startup.|Ask Hn. How Bad Should The Code Be In A Startup]]? >[**Infrantry**] take the prototype, test it, refine it, make it manufacturable, write the manuals, market it, and ideally produce a profit. Because there are so many more of these soldiers and their duties are so varied, they require an infrastructure of rules and procedures for getting things done – all the stuff that commandos hate. >[**Police**] These third-wave troops hate change. They aren't troops at all but **police**. They want to fuel growth not by planning more invasions and landing on more beaches but by adding people and building economies and empires of scale.