demanding management, high agency, and bureaucratic savvy

also: https://charlesyang.substack.com/p/how-hyman-rickover-built-the-nuclear

(the same author and same material. the main link is denser but the latter is pretty good too)

Extremely picky interviewer, sought high agency above all else

Huge emphasis on learning/training. Had employees make self-study plans to read papers and stuff, worked with MIT and other institutions to develop courses, had his senior engineers give lectures, etc

Direct communication with every sub commander and project officers. Made sure to always know what was going on everywhere. Would even collect the "pinks" (carbon copies) of everything written on all of his teams and read them at home every night

Culture is more important than systems, in his opinion. Blamed 3 mile island on this

Big big emphasis on noticing problems early and escalating quickly

Intentional about forbidding his project officers from befriending the contractors they were overseeing

Zirconium production only happened at scale once Rickover forced it in-house