Adrian Cronauer:[impersonating an Intelligence Officer] We’ve realized that we’re having a very difficult time finding the enemy. It isn’t easy to find a Vietnamese man named “Charlie.” They’re all named Nguyen, or Tran, or…
Adrian Cronauer: [as himself] Well, how are you going about it?
Adrian Cronauer: [as Intel Officer] Well, we walk up to someone and say, ‘Are you the enemy? And, if they say yes, then we shoot them.”

Good Morning Vietnam

If you all only knew how close this is to reality. A lot of the training I had in the 1990’s basically relied on the bad guys walking around talking and acting like Boris Badinov. It can take months or years for an intelligence worker to become a professional and an expert in his or her field, and, especially in the military, people bop around from one assignment to another so often that by the time they learn how to do their job effectively, they’re getting ready to move on.

The flip side of this is the person who’s been at the same job for years and years, knows everything there ever will be to know about it (just ask them), and resists the thought that the target may evolve or that methods and sources might too.  In becoming an uber-expert on their job, they had lost flexibility and perspective.

There has to be a happy medium.   If you’re going to need six months to a year to become more than proficient at a job, then a two year tour is probably too short.  But if you’ve spent 10 years at the same place and have grown into the office furniture, then maybe it’s time for you to broaden your horizons a bit.