What not to write on your security clearance form (1988)

Story and tone

• Readers enjoy the anecdote as a slice of early computing/crypto culture and Cold War-era bureaucracy, with some noting it was originally published on April 1 and has a Feynman-esque flavor.
• Several point out the author’s other writings and “wall of shame” stories as similarly charming and worth reading.

Government investigations and wartime context

• Some argue the FBI’s response was rational: a cryptographic-looking note near a major military installation during WWII warranted serious investigation given what that field office knew at the time.
• Others zoom out to criticize security agencies as bloated “jobs programs” that waste huge resources on theater while missing real threats, comparing this focused investigation with mass injustices like Japanese American internment.

Security clearances, lying, and interpretable truth

• Many focus on the security officer’s advice to omit the incident, seeing it as emblematic of a system that nominally screens for honesty but in practice rewards “selective truth.”
• Commenters stress that what matters is not pure truth but how it fits bureaucratic “bins”; odd-but-innocent facts can be more dangerous than silence.
• There’s mention of “Goodhart’s Law”: a process meant to reduce blackmail risk can end up incentivizing lies that create blackmail risk.

Drugs, alcohol, and clearance culture

• Multiple anecdotes: people are told to admit past marijuana use but minimize it; others list everything and are sidelined, while functional alcoholics and heavily indebted employees keep clearances.
• Debate over inconsistency: weed use can trigger intense scrutiny, while alcohol abuse or large debts are sometimes ignored if someone is “useful.”
• Some emphasize that investigators mainly care about vulnerabilities (secrets, finances, addictions) rather than moral purity, and that full disclosure is often survivable.

Automation, human patching, and bureaucracy

• A tangent explores how humans routinely “patch” broken processes that automation later exposes, tying back to how clearance systems and government forms crystallize flawed, rigid categories.
• Several note that systems punish anomalies rather than risks, encouraging people to conform on paper rather than be fully honest.

Milk.com and other curiosities

• A significant subthread marvels at the milk.com domain, its custom “lactoserv” server, and other humorous stories on the site (e.g., government surplus missile, “mongrel” on forms).