The Killer Instinct

“Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise.”

(Prov 6:6)

The Killer Instinct

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

In my first professional job as an economist, I interned with the Economic Research Service (ERS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where I found a summer job in 1979 with Western European Branch in the International Trade Division. After spending a summer living in Puerto Rico, my Spanish was excellent for an economist and I was assigned to assist with research on the agriculture of Spain.

If the truth be told, federal agencies are not sure what to do with interns. Interns typically are sons and daughters of senior managers or others in positions of authority within the government. Because of their connections, managers generally farm them out either to staff interested in having help or interested in working with young people, but there is seldom any expectation that they will accomplish much of anything—before micro-computers came on the scene, they frequently had no certifiable job skills. The majority of interns stand for most of the summer in front of the photocopy machine or simply putt around for the time they are present. I was a bit different because I came trained in agricultural economics and spoke Spanish.

In the late 1970s, Spain was a major importer of U.S. corn and soybeans and had not yet entered the European Community (EC). The U.S. supported Spanish entry into EC to strengthen their economy and bolster their political stability and commitment to NATO, because the U.S. had strategically important military bases in the Azores Islands, among other places. But U.S. agricultural exporters were concerned that Spanish entry into the EC would threaten lucrative U.S. grain exports, as a result of Spain’s adoption of the EC’s infamous import levies on grain. Consequently, my office was interested in producing research to facilitate discussions about Spanish agriculture.

In discussions about my work during the summer, I proposed assembling a statistical bulletin focused on Spanish agriculture. Statistical books were tedious to produce, but popular as publications because most researchers at that time did not all have access to the libraries, such as the Library of Congress and the USDA library, that we had in Washington. My proposal was enthusiastically approved by management, but the support staff almost rioted.

The poor reception with staff could have been anticipated because in the 1970s publications were not automated like today. For my part, I would spend the day looking up numbers in Spanish census books and translating the row and column headings. Row and column sums were computed with a manual calculator (the following year I was given an electric calculator) which required punching a bunch of numbers and then pulling down a large handle which produced a distinctive crunching sound. I recorded all these figures and titles on lined (or graph) paper in pencil and double-checked all numbers and calculations marking changes with  a nice red pencil .

When I finished my work, this table was then passed to a secretary who typed it all up on an IBM Selectric typewriter on large sheets of camera copy. Tables bigger than an 8.5 * 11 inch sheet of paper were photocopied and reduced in size to be 8.5 * 11 inch—the term camera copy described this process. This process was tedious to begin with and errors needed to be corrected with white-out, which could only be done with great effort to line up the typewriter and, then, only a limited number of times. If too many errors were made, the entire table needed to be retyped. Needless to say, I went through about three secretaries before I found someone with the accuracy and persistence to complete the task.[1]

The tedious nature of assembling a statistical bulletin, both for the researcher and the secretary, sealed my reputation as a researcher because it demonstrated that I had the “killer instinct”—the ability to design, implement, and complete useful projects without undue supervision. The project also convinced me of the merits of computer automation, which became a theme later in my career. The bulletin that I prepared in a summer of mind-numbing work also became the template for  country bulletins undertaken by other analysts .[2] Consequently, I was invited back for a second summer’s work as an intern and, when I finished my doctorate,  was hired as a full-time researcher—not for my intellect, but for my energy.

REFERENCE

Hiemstra, Stephen W. 1980. Selected Agricultural Statistics on Spain, 1965-76. USDA. ERS. Statistical Bulletin 630. March.

[1] After President Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers, my expert secretary later applied for and received training as an air traffic controller, which was at the time an unusual career path for a woman and additional testimony to her talent and persistence.

[2] For example, a statistical bulletin like mine was prepared for Portugal, but it took an entire year to complete.