--- title: Fish Food for Thought | daily.dev description: Military aviation has a concept called 'currency': staying close enough to the work to judge it, distinct from proficiency. The Army's doctrine (TC 3-04.11)... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/fish-food-for-thought-qyzcl5d8v twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Fish Food for Thought | daily.dev og:description: Military aviation has a concept called 'currency': staying close enough to the work to judge it, distinct from proficiency. The Army's doctrine (TC 3-04.11)... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/fish-food-for-thought-qyzcl5d8v og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/qYzCL5d8V.png og:image:alt: Fish Food for Thought og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Fish Food for Thought **[Fish Food for Thought](https://daily.dev/sources/mikefisher)** · 11 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Military aviation has a concept called 'currency': staying close enough to the work to judge it, distinct from proficiency. The Army's doctrine (TC 3-04.11) assigns Flight Activity Categories by position, from hands-on company-level roles to simulator-only senior leaders barred from crew duties. The author maps this to tech orgs: line managers as FAC 1, directors as FAC 2, executives as FAC 3. AI lowers the cost of staying current at every level, letting executives prototype ideas or query production data directly, and Fortune reports Klarna's CEO now builds a working prototype in about 20 minutes, a loop that used to take weeks. But the same AI access risks 'slop grenades,' a term Shopify uses, when leaders generate work with AI and pass it to teams without the discipline the simulator analogy demands. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### what is the military concept of 'currency' versus 'proficiency' for pilots and leaders Currency means staying close enough to the work to judge it, while proficiency means being able to do the job well yourself. A leader can be current without being the best performer, as long as they stay close enough that problems and status reports can't be talked around. Army doctrine (TC 3-04.11) codifies this through Flight Activity Categories tied to rank and position, not personal preference. _daily.dev surfaces practical leadership frameworks like this for engineers moving into management._ ### what are Flight Activity Categories (FAC) in Army aviation doctrine Flight Activity Categories, defined in Army training circular TC 3-04.11, assign operational flying requirements by leadership level. FAC 1 covers company and troop level with the highest proficiency and flying-hour requirements; FAC 2 covers staff and headquarters jobs requiring individual skill but less collective mission practice; FAC 3 applies at brigade level and above, where aviators stay simulator-qualified but are prohibited from performing crewmember duties in actual aircraft. _developers moving into leadership roles can track frameworks like this one on daily.dev._ ### how is Klarna's CEO using AI to build prototypes himself instead of relying on engineers Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski described testing his own half-good and half-bad ideas with AI rather than handing them to engineers and product staff, building a working prototype in about 20 minutes, down from a process that used to take weeks. He described this on a podcast as a way to validate ideas before consuming a team's time. _leaders weighing how much to build themselves versus delegate can follow this kind of case on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI needs a flight school](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-needs-a-flight-school-nn0c0fozt) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Feedback Flywheel](https://daily.dev/posts/feedback-flywheel-ldt1cxyls) · Martin Fowler · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building Your AI Work Factory](https://daily.dev/posts/building-your-ai-work-factory-dzibwosow) · Atlassian · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The CTO must now think like the CFO to survive \| Sancus Ventures’ Lake Dai](https://daily.dev/posts/the-cto-must-now-think-like-the-cfo-to-survive-sancus-ventures-lake-dai-enk4rp7y7) · Dev Interrupted · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The AI Great Leap Forward](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-great-leap-forward-o8ztn6wh5) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership), [#code-review](https://daily.dev/tags/code-review), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/fish-food-for-thought-qyzcl5d8v) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Fish Food for Thought","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/fish-food-for-thought-qyzcl5d8v","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/fish-food-for-thought-qyzcl5d8v"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T13:10:20.822Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T15:02:07.808Z","description":"Military aviation has a concept called 'currency': staying close enough to the work to judge it, distinct from proficiency. 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A leader can be current without being the best performer, as long as they stay close enough that problems and status reports can't be talked around. Army doctrine (TC 3-04.11) codifies this through Flight Activity Categories tied to rank and position, not personal preference. daily.dev surfaces practical leadership frameworks like this for engineers moving into management."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"what are Flight Activity Categories (FAC) in Army aviation doctrine","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Flight Activity Categories, defined in Army training circular TC 3-04.11, assign operational flying requirements by leadership level. 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